Serena's crazy crush
by PokemonOtaku0909
Summary: This story takes place after Pokémon XY episode 26 "A Battle by Any Other Name!". Serena is worried about the heads up warning Miette gave her about Ash. She goes by herself to a river, at night, and stares at the stars. It's her way of soul searching. Ash eventually joins her and tells her about his history as a pokemon trainer. He also talks about his history with other females.
1. Ash and Misty's history

It's 12:15 am in the woods. There's a full moon in the sky surrounded by hundreds of stars. Serena can't sleep due to the personal conflicts going on in her mind. Therefore, she manages to walk out of the camp site and away from the others, with out waking them up. She walks towards the river that's exactly 1 mile away from the camp site. At 12:49 am, Ash wakes up and notices that Serena is gone. Not wanting to worry and wake up the others, Ash decides to walk in the direction that leads to the river in the hope of finding Serena. He soon reaches the river and sees Serena a few yards in front of him. As he quietly walks closer to her, he hears her quietly talking to herself about something while looking up at the stars. He decides to surprise her by breaking the silence. Big time.

ASH: HEY SERENA.

SERENA: AHHHHH!

Serena is so startled by Ash sneaking up on her that she accidentally jumps into the river. Ash tries to help her get out of the river.

SERENA: (yelling and splashing around) ASH KETCHUM, YOU GET ME OUT OF THIS COLD RIVER RIGHT NOW!

ASH: YES!

Ash grabs her hands and pulls her out of the river. She shakes most of the water off of her.

ASH: Are you alright?

SERENA: (half grateful and half pissed off at Ash, at the same time) I'm still breathing, aren't i?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (half grateful and half pissed off at Ash, at the same time) Peachy!

SERENA: (half grateful and half pissed off at Ash, at the same time) Now i won't have to worry about ending down in a watery grave.

SERENA: (half grateful and half pissed off at Ash, at the same time) Just as long as a certain loud mouth boy i know doesn't scare me out of my mind again.

ASH: Sorry about that.

ASH: I didn't know you would freak out that way over me sneaking up on you and surprising you.

SERENA: (half grateful and half pissed off at Ash, at the same time) Well, now you know.

ASH: I said i was sorry.

SERENA: I forgive you.

ASH: Thank you.

ASH: Now we should probably head back to camp where it's warmer.

SERENA: No thanks.

ASH: But if we don't get back to camp and soon, you could catch a cold.

SERENA: (blushing) Not if you sit really close next to me while we look at the stars together.

ASH: You sure you're not to cold.

SERENA: I'm cold, but i can handle it.

Serena sits down by the river and looks up at the stars.

SERENA: Come join me!

ASH: Yes!

Ash sits down next to Serena, by the river.

ASH: This starry night reminds me of the time me, Brock, and Misty helped clefairy fix it's ship.

SERENA: Who are Brock and Misty?

ASH: Brock and Misty were 2 of my many friends that traveled around with me for a while?

ASH: Brock was a rock type gym leader in the Kanto region and Misty was a water type gym leader in the Kanto region too.

SERENA: Wow!

SERENA: I'm impressed to find out that not only you know about gym leaders personally, you also traveled around with them too.

ASH: Yeah!

ASH: They were and are awesome people.

ASH: Brock was an amazing cook who was always prepared for trouble and for pokemon emergencies.

ASH: Not only that, but he was a pokemon breeder in training.

ASH: He also had a flirting addiction and an obsession with girls.

SERENA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

SERENA: Hearing that sort of reminds me of how Bonnie has an addiction to trying to find Clemont a wife.

ASH: You got a point there.

SERENA: What kind of person was Misty?

ASH: She was the kind of girl who was tomboyish about 47% of the time.

ASH: She had this special talent of really communicating and understanding water pokemon.

ASH: Not only was she my special friend, but she was also my coach in some ways and she was like a bossy and loving big sister to me too.

SERENA: She sounds like an amazing girl.

ASH: Oh yeah.

ASH: She and i may have gotten into a lot of arguments, but there were always 3 things that i loved about her and that was the fact that she loves pokemon, she's beautiful, and at the same time, she's strong too.

ASH: To sum it all up, she was a real girl.

After hearing that last sentence, Serena gets a little nervous.

SERENA: (talking nervously) Um, Ash.

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (talking nervously) Do you love Misty?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (panicking) WHAT!

ASH: Well yeah.

ASH: She may not travel around with me anymore, but i do still love her deeply.

SERENA: (talking nervously) I know you love her, but are you in love with her?

ASH: Oh, that's what you meant.

ASH: (shocked) HUH!

SERENA: (talking nervously) Ash, are you in love with her?

ASH: (acting, blushing, and yelling nervously) NO NO NO!

ASH: (acting and blushing nervously) I'll admit that i love her deeply, but i don't love her like a girlfriend.

SERENA: Oh good.

SERENA: (talking nervously) I mean uh, i'm happy that you and Misty have such a friendly relationship.

SERENA: (talking nervously) That's what i meant.

Serena stops talking nervously.

ASH: Okay!

SERENA: Isn't clefairy an alien pokemon?

ASH: Possibly and probably.

SERENA: That's a complex answer.

ASH: Clefairy is a complex pokemon.

ASH: As for the Kanto league, i didn't win it.

ASH: After the Kanto league ended, Me, Misty, and Brock met a woman named Professor Ivy and Brock feel head over feet in love with her.

ASH: As a result, he basically declared that Professor Ivy's lab, which he referred to as a ship, needed a captain to help her run it and with that, he decided to stay with her at her lab, leaving me and Misty to travel alone to the Orange Islands.

ASH: The Orange Islands is where we met Tracey.

ASH: After getting to know Tracey for a very short time, he decided to travel with us all over the Orange Islands.

ASH: He was an amazing pokemon artist.

ASH: He would draw pictures of pokemon that he saw in person, in his sketch book.

SERENA: He sounds very artistic and interesting.

ASH: He also had a habit of drawing pictures of females that he saw in person, in his sketch book too.

SERENA: Now he sounds like Brock.

ASH: Ha ha ha!

ASH: Good one.

ASH: Anyways, Tracey's dream is to learn all he can about pokemon, just like Brock's dream was to become a pokemon breeder.

ASH: Tracey is a renowned pokemon watcher.

ASH: After i won the Orange league championship and won a place in the Orange league hall of fame, Me, Misty, and Tracy began slowly heading back to Pallet Town.

SERENA: I'm extremely impressed.

SERENA: You're an awesome legend for earning a place in a hall of fame.

SERENA: Congratulations!

ASH: (talking and blushing at the same time) You're to kind and thank you.

ASH: Anyways, when we finally made it to Pallet Town, we were shocked to find out that Brock was back and in my house, doing chores for my mom.

SERENA: That sounds like a pleasant surprise to see.

ASH: It was.

ASH: This is where things got interesting.

ASH: When we asked him why he left Professor Ivy's lab, he kept saying he didn't want to talk about it.

ASH: It was so bad, that every time someone said Ivy's name, Brock would crawl in a corner with his head held down and sulk about hearing her name.

SERENA: (laughing out loud) HA HA HA HA HA HA!

SERENA: She must have dumped him like a dumpster.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Me and the others eventually realized what happened between those 2, with out Brock even having to say anything.

ASH: Moving on.

ASH: After Gary saved the day against team rocket, i decided to challenge him where i put pikachu against his Eevee.

ASH: Gary won the battle.

ASH: I was depressed and frustrated, but i went to follow Gary to Johto, in order to defeat him once and for all.

ASH: Tracey decided to stay in Pallet Town, so he could be Oak's assistant.

ASH: Before me and Misty left, Brock rejoined our group and we headed off to Johto.

SERENA: So tell me Ash.

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: I know you were born and raised in Pallet Town in the Kanto region, but what i want to know is have you traveled outside of the Kanto region?

ASH: Sure have.

ASH: I traveled with Brock and Misty to the Johto region and i succeeded in earning all of the required gym badges i needed in order to enter the Johto league.

ASH: Once i entered the Johto league, i achieved one of my best victories when i defeated Gary Oak, grandson of Professor Oak.

SERENA: Good for you.

ASH: Unfortunately, i failed to win the entire Johto league.

SERENA: That's to bad.

SERENA: What happened after the Johto league ended?

ASH: Me, Brock, and Misty went our separate ways.

ASH: I went back home to Pallet Town to plan my next move, Brock went back home to his gym where his parents and his several siblings were waiting for him, and Misty went back home to her gym, due to the fact that her 3 older sisters were going on a world wide cruise, which meant that she had to run the gym all by herself.

SERENA: It must've been hard to say good bye to them after all the adventures you 3 had.

ASH: It was, but that's the pokemon path for ya.

ASH: It's filled with fun, joy, danger, meeting new friends, and saying farewell to old friends.

**The history that Ash and Misty have is mostly unforgetable. The 2 of them have created a special bond with each other. Knowing that makes Serena a bit uneasy. She's kind of odd. Please keep reading this story and type up your reviews for me about what you thought about this chapter! Peace!**


	2. Ash and May's history

Ash is still telling Serena about his history as a pokemon trainer and his history with some of the most important females of his past. Serena finds it interesting.

SERENA: Where did you go after staying in Pallet Town after a while?

ASH: I went to the Hoenn region and met lots of interesting new people and pokemon.

SERENA: Tell me more!

ASH: Well, i met and traveled with 2 new traveling companions that i'll never forget.

SERENA: Who were they?

ASH: They were Max and May.

ASH: Max was 7 years old when i first met him and May was 10 years old when i first met her.

ASH: They were siblings.

SERENA: Really?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: Do Bonnie and Clemont remind you of them?

ASH: No!

ASH: Bonnie and Clemont are very different from Max and May.

SERENA: Different how?

ASH: Bonnie and Clemont never seem to get into arguments, but Max and May got into arguments almost daily.

ASH: I guess that was their way of telling each other how much they loved each other.

ASH: The relationship between Max and May reminded me a lot of the relationship between me and Misty.

ASH: Just like Misty and me got into a lot of arguments, Max and May got into a lot of arguments too.

ASH: Also, May was very bossy and over protective of Max, just like Misty was very bossy and over protective of me.

SERENA: I can kind of understand May's reason for being so protective of Max, due to the age difference, but what was Misty's reason for being so protective of you?

ASH: I think she was 12 years old when she first met me and i was 10 years old for sure.

ASH: Maybe the reason she was so protective of me was because she was older then me and she probably thought of me as her younger brother.

ASH: However, there is one thing about Misty that still puzzles me.

SERENA: What's that?

ASH: When ever a girl flirted with me in any way, she would get angry at that particular girl and come in between us.

ASH: She would also seem to get mad at me and i wouldn't even flirt back with the girls that flirted with me.

ASH: It's a mystery, why she acted that way in front of girls that flirted with me.

SERENA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

ASH: What's so funny?

SERENA: Ash Ketchum, you're a typical boy.

SERENA: When it comes to understanding girls, you're about below average on the dense scale.

ASH: What's that suppose to mean?

SERENA: Figure it out.

SERENA: So tell me some more about Max and May.

ASH: I met May first and then Max.

ASH: At first she was aiming to be a pokemon trainer, but she didn't really like pokemon.

ASH: We traveled alone and together for a very short period, until we decided to go to Petalburg, since that's where the nearest gym was.

ASH: She didn't even tell me what she already knew about the gym.

SERENA: Go on!

ASH: Well, when i first met Max, he pretended to be the gym leader of the Petalburg gym in the Hoenn region and i fell for it.

SERENA: Ha ha ha!

SERENA: Seriously!

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (laughing out loud) HA HA HA HA HA HA!

SERENA: I can't believe you were gullible enough to think that a 7 year old little boy was a gym leader.

SERENA: What are you, stupid?

ASH: (getting a little mad) Hey, i'm not stupid.

ASH: Max is a very sharp, smart, and clever little boy.

SERENA: What ever you say, genius.

ASH: Anyways, i soon found out that Max wasn't the gym leader, but the son of a gym leader.

SERENA: No way.

ASH: Yes way.

ASH: I also eventually met their mother Caroline and their father Norman and Norman is the gym leader of the Petalburg gym.

ASH: I stayed at their house for a very brief period and i noticed that Max kept saying how he wondered what it was like traveling around the world.

ASH: I didn't challenge Norman to a gym battle because i only had pikachu with me at the time.

ASH: In order to have a gym battle at the Petalburg gym, you need to have at least 3 pokemon.

ASH: Right before me and May were about to leave, Max suggested that he should travel with us since May didn't know anything about pokemon.

ASH: Norman and Caroline gave him the okay and than me and May agreed that he should come along too.

ASH: After that, we traveled very briefly together and we eventually ran into my old friend Brock.

SERENA: That must've made you really happy.

ASH: It did.

ASH: After i met up with Brock again, along with Max and May, we decided to all travel together.

SERENA: That must've been so much fun.

ASH: It was.

ASH: May eventually stopped wanting to be a pokemon trainer and decided to become a pokemon coordinator instead.

SERENA: Interesting!

ASH: Me and her met a few rivals along the way to the grand festival and the Hoenn league.

ASH: Her 3 rivals were Drew, Harley, and Solidad.

SERENA: Did she win the grand festival?

ASH: No!

SERENA: That's to bad.

SERENA: Did you have any rivals in Hoenn?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: There was Rafe, Morrison, and Tyson.

SERENA: Did you win the Hoenn league?

ASH: No!

ASH: I manage to defeat Morrison, but i got defeated by Tyson.

ASH: I only made it to 9th place in the Hoenn league.

SERENA: I'm sorry to hear that.

ASH: Tyson then proved to be the winner of the Hoenn league.

ASH: Also, team rocket bothered us so many times that i couldn't even keep count.

ASH: It was clear that they were master stalkers who not only stalked me relentlessly in Kanto and Johto, but were then doing it in Hoenn too.

SERENA: Team rocket really needs to find a new occupation.

ASH: Tell me about it.

ASH: Anyways, there were 2 other villainous teams in the Hoenn region besides team rocket and they were known as team aqua and team magma.

SERENA: What were they all about?

ASH: Team aqua's ultimate evil goal was to expand the amount of water in the world by awakening kyogre.

ASH: Kyogre is a water type legendary pokemon.

ASH: Kyogre is said to be a powerful pokemon, having control over the element of water and rain to have quenched areas of the world plagued with drought and to have expanded the seas in ancient times.

ASH: Kyogre is normally calm and peaceful, but if it meets its rival, groudon, kyogre will engage in a cataclysmic battle.

SERENA: That kind of power is frightening and so are those types of bad guys.

ASH: As for team magma, their ultimate evil goal was to expand the amount of land mass in the world by awakening groudon.

ASH: Groudon is a ground type legendary pokemon.

ASH: Groudon possesses the ability to expand continents.

ASH: In ancient times it came in conflict with kyogre.

ASH: It is said to be the creator of land in the pokemon world, bearing immense power over heat and light and using that to evaporate flooded lands.

ASH: It sleeps under ground in large magma chambers and causes volcanoes to erupt when it awakens.

ASH: If it encounters its rival, kyogre, they will engage in a cataclysmic battle.

SERENA: I don't know what's more creepy, villians that tried to change the geography of the world or these legendary pokemon that have really bad tempers.

ASH: I know what you mean.

ASH: I almost forgot to mention that Misty spent a brief time in the Hoenn region.

SERENA: No kidding.

ASH: She became quick friends with Max and May and the 5 of us had a good time even though we traveled together for a very short time.

SERENA: I'm glad to hear that.

ASH: After the Hoenn league had ended, i went back to Pallet town, Max and May went back to Petalburg, and Brock went back home to his gym in Pewter City.

ASH: However, after hearing about the battle frontier from my friend Scoot, i decided to enter into it.

ASH: Misty visited me while i was at Professor's Oak's lab, getting ready to go on my 2nd Kanto journey to win the battle frontier.

ASH: She told me she wanted to travel with me for a short while and i was thrilled.

ASH: Not only that, but Max, May, and Brock made a surprise visit to the professor's lab and May told me that she wanted to continue to travel with me so that she could try to win the grand festival in Kanto.

SERENA: What happened next?

ASH: I told her i would love having her travel with me some more.

ASH: Max then asked if he could come along too and May told him if Norman and Caroline said yes, then she would say yes too.

ASH: Max parents gave him the okay again.

ASH: Brock also decided to continue traveling with us and with that, the 5 of us traveled briefly together in Kanto.

ASH: Unfortunately, Misty had to get back to her home, Cerulean City, to continue to run the gym, due to the fact that there was a problem there and her 3 older sisters couldn't handle it.

SERENA: So what happened to May at the grand festival in Kanto?

SERENA: Did she win it?

ASH: Unfortunately, she lost to Solidad and she took it pretty hard.

ASH: She did manage to finally defeat her biggest rival, Drew.

SERENA: Good for her.

SERENA: Did you win the battle frontier?

ASH: Oh yeah.

ASH: Not only that, but i managed to defeat the pyramid king, Brandon himself.

SERENA: That makes you like an immortal legend.

ASH: Well, i don't know about that.

ASH: Anyways, i was offered a frontier brain position, but i declined.

SERENA: Why would you give up such an amazing offer?

ASH: The thing is, there are still so many awesome people and places i haven't even seen yet and that means there are still so many awesome battles for me to win.

ASH: Those were my exact words to Scott and he understood what i meant.

SERENA: So what happened after you defeated the battle frontier?

ASH: Me and company began heading home, but not before me and May decide to enter into a pokémon contest that was open to everyone.

ASH: Appealing with eevee and pikachu, me and May both got past the appeal stage and ended up having to battle each other.

SERENA: Now this story is getting good.

SERENA: Keep going.

ASH: After a break to the final round, team rocket appeared and stole the pokémon.

ASH: Combusken got so mad, it evolved into blaziken, blasted team rocket into orbit, and rescued the pokémon.

ASH: The final round of the contest began.

ASH: I used my sceptile and May used her blaziken.

ASH: The battle was fierce.

ASH: However, despite the type advantage, i gained an upper hand.

ASH: My sceptile and her blaziken collided with each other with immensely powerful attacks, causing a big cloud of smoke to appear on the field.

ASH: Me and May were able to stand on the stage as the smoke cleared and the battle ended in a tie.

SERENA: Well done to the both of you.

ASH: We were amazing.

ASH: Me and May did our best and the spectators let out a large applause and cheers of joy.

ASH: We both got the winning ribbon and i told sceptile to use leaf blade to cut the ribbon in half.

ASH: I kept one half as a lucky charm and May kept the other half as a lucky charm.

SERENA: The idea to cut the ribbon in half, so both you and May could share the prize winning ribbon, due to the fact your battle with her ended in a tie, was an amazing stroke of genius.

SERENA: By the way, i really meant it that time when i used the word "Genius!" to refer to you.

ASH: Since i'm in such a good mood, i'll let that comment pass.

SERENA: Thanks!

SERENA: Keep on going.

ASH: After the battle ended, me, Max, May, and Brock went our separate ways.

ASH: May said that she was going to the Johto region alone to compete in the pokémon contests, Max went back to Petalburg City, hoping to become a pokémon trainer soon, Brock returns to his gym in Pewter City, and i returned to Pallet Town for a short visit with my mom, Tracey, my other pokemon, and Professor Oak.

SERENA: So why did May decide to go to Johto alone and with out Max?

ASH: She told Max that if he came with her, she would just start to depend on him.

ASH: May was and is a very sweet and independent girl.

SERENA: I'm guessing Max didn't like the idea of not traveling around anymore.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: He was sad at first, but then i told him that when he was old enough, i would challenge him to a pokemon battle.

ASH: He was happy after i told him that and then we said good bye.

SERENA: That's awesome.

SERENA: You 2 must have a really strong bond.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: When we first met, we didn't exactly get along, but we eventually became quick friends.

ASH: Max is like a little brother to me.

SERENA: You 2 obviously have a bromance.

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: Just like you and Max have a bromance, me and Bonnie have a sismance.

ASH: I like the new word you just created.

SERENA: Me too.

ASH: I also had a very strong bond with May.

ASH: Me and her were like salt and pepper.

ASH: She was my battle mate.

After hearing that last sentence, Serena gets a little nervous.

SERENA: (talking nervously) Um, Ash.

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (talking nervously) Do you love May?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (panicking) WHAT!

ASH: Well yeah.

ASH: She may not travel around with me anymore, but i do still love her deeply.

SERENA: (talking nervously) I know you love her, but are you in love with her?

ASH: Oh, that's what you ment.

ASH: (shocked) HUH!

SERENA: (talking nervously) Ash, are you in love with her?

ASH: (acting, blushing, and yelling nervously) NO NO NO!

ASH: (acting and blushing nervously) I'll admit that i love her deeply, but i don't love her like a girlfriend.

SERENA: I'm glad to hear it.

SERENA: (talking nervously) I mean uh, i'm happy that you and May have such a close bonded relationship.

SERENA: (talking nervously) That's what i meant.

Serena stops talking nervously.

ASH: Alright!

SERENA: So what was your next move once you got back home after saying bye to Max, May, and Brock?

ASH: Upon my return, i met up with Gary and we decided to have a pokémon battle.

ASH: I was confident that i would win until i found out Gary had caught an electivire from the Sinnoh region, which easily defeated pikachu.

ASH: After my battle with Gary ended, he gave me a few words of wisdom.

SERENA: What were those words?

ASH: He told me that it was great that i won the battle frontier, but that i shouldn't get to comfortable with my success.

ASH: He went on to say that there are lots of pokemon in the world that i haven't even seen yet.

ASH: He decided to go back to the Sinnoh region to do some more pokemon research.

ASH: After he left, it only took me a few seconds to make up my mind about what my next move was going to be.

ASH: I decided to travel to the Sinnoh region as well and along with aipom and pikachu, said good bye to my mom, Tracey, and Professor Oak and headed off to Sinnoh.

SERENA: Where new and exciting adventures awaited.

ASH: Hey!

ASH: I'm telling the story of my travels.

SERENA: I couldn't resist the urge to say it.

**Ash is no stranger when it comes to action, adventure, danger, and awkward moments. Serena seems to be giving him a few of those awkward moments in this conversation of theirs. Please keep reading and typing up your reviews for what you thought about this chapter and this whole story! Peace!**


	3. Ash's history with Angie and Dawn

Ash still continues to tell Serena about his history as a pokemon trainer and his history with some of the most important females of his past. Serena finds it interesting, but at the same time, it makes her nervous.

SERENA: So tell me about your life in the Sinnoh region.

ASH: When i finally arrived in Sinnoh by ship, i had an aerial battle with team rocket which resulted in the loss of pikachu into a forest.

ASH: Did i forget to mention that team rocket not only stalked me relentlessly in the Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn regions, but also the Sinnoh region too.

SERENA: You didn't tell me that fact.

SERENA: Continue!

ASH: I begun my search for pikachu when i had a pleasant and surprising reunion with Brock on the way.

SERENA: Really!

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: This is getting good.

ASH: Later on, i caught a starly.

ASH: Later, me and Brock met Professor Rowan for the very first time.

ASH: He told us that a girl with a pikachu was looking for its' trainer.

ASH: We then began to track each other down with the aid of Professor Rowan, Nurse Joy, and Officer Jenny.

ASH: Me and Brock continued our search for pikachu.

ASH: While searching, i was challenged to a single elimination and 3 on 3 pokémon battle by a dude with purple hair named Paul.

ASH: Unfortunately, i didn't have 3 pokemon at the time and he called me pathetic for it.

SERENA: He sounds like an insensitive jerk.

ASH: He was.

ASH: Anyways, me and Brock spent a little more time searching, when we had an unpleasant ambush by team rocket.

ASH: The long blue haired girl, her piplup, and my pikachu helped us and team rocket was sent into orbit as usual.

ASH: Dawn became fast friends with me, Brock, and pikachu when we headed back to the pokémon lab to get a package that was sent from my mother.

ASH: The package had new clothes for me that she made herself.

SERENA: That's so sweet.

ASH: Afterwards, the 3 of us decided to travel to Jubilife City together.

ASH: Just as we were leaving the pokemon center, we just so happen to spot a creepy purple haired trainer named Paul, standing outside and waiting for me, whom me and Brock met earlier.

ASH: This was Dawn's first time meeting him, so she didn't know what to think of purple Paul.

SERENA: (laughing out loud) HA HA HA HA HA HA!

SERENA: Good one.

ASH: Anyways, the 3 on 3 battle between me and Paul ended in a tie.

ASH: After the battle ended, he let loose one of his pokemon, saying that when he finds a stronger pokemon, he'll just capture it then and there and as for me, i felt like i lost.

SERENA: If it was a tie, than that means you both won and loss at the same time.

ASH: That makes a lot of sense.

SERENA: So what was Dawn trying to become?

ASH: Her dream was and is to become a top coordinator just like her mom.

SERENA: She's the shades of May.

ASH: She and May are a lot alike.

SERENA: Did and does Dawn have any rivals?

ASH: Yeah!

ASH: She has 5 rivals.

ASH: There's Jessilina, Nando, Kenny, Ursula, and her biggest rival of them all, Zoey.

ASH: Jessilina and Ursula were the arrogant ones.

SERENA: What are the names of all of your Sinnoh rivals?

ASH: There's Nando, Barry, Conway, Tobias, and last, but not least, Paul.

SERENA: Nando was your rival too?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: He tried juggling to be a coordinator and a pokemon trainer at the same time.

SERENA: He sounds like a workaholic.

ASH: He is a workaholic.

ASH: Moving on.

ASH: There was this one time when me, Dawn, and Brock entered into a tag team battle tournament in Heart Home City.

ASH: Brock was paired with a female bird tamer named Holly, Dawn was paired with a nerdy trainer named Conway, and i ended up with my rival Paul.

SERENA: For real?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: We some how signed up for the same tag team tournament with out even knowing about it until my number was paired up with his.

SERENA: I'm guessing that was very unpleasant for the both of you.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Paul was being rude and bossy towards me before the tag team tournament even began.

SERENA: That purple haired jerk.

ASH: We got lucky since we won our first tag team battle, but after our first tag team battle, we were still arguing about how we should win the tournament.

ASH: The Heart Home City pokémon tag team battle tournament continued, as Paul kept on forcing his chimchar to train well past its' limit.

ASH: I asked him why he insisted on putting chimchar through the most difficult training and why he pushed chimchar harder than his other pokemon, but he just told me that it was none of my business.

ASH: Afterwards, Dawn snuck up on us and told Paul that he was being rude to the other pokemon trainers that entered the tag team tournament.

SERENA: She's got heart.

ASH: That she does.

ASH: Anyways, i finally gave in to my curiosity and asked Paul why he entered into the tag team tournament in the first place.

ASH: He told me that i wouldn't know and that he entered the tag team tournament because he thought it would be a good chance to teach his pokemon some real combat fighting.

SERENA: That explains why a loner like him would enter a tag team tournament.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: The next day, Brock asked him why he pushes so hard to make chimchar stronger.

ASH: Brock went on to say that he wasn't asking Paul because he's my friend, but he was asking Paul because he's chimchar's friend.

ASH: Paul finally gave in and told all of us that we all wanted the same thing.

SERENA: What was that?

ASH: To see chimchar reach his full potential.

ASH: He then told us all the story of when he first met chimchar.

ASH: Some time in the past, he ran across it and he saw it use a highly impressive special ability to attack a horde of zangoose that were violently attacking it.

ASH: Just when it looked like chimchar was almost out of energy, the zangooses were about to attack chimchar, who was standing on the edge of a cliff.

ASH: However, at the last few seconds, chimchar used blaze and managed to defeat the horde of zangoose easily and violently.

ASH: Paul was shocked and impressed by the whole sight.

ASH: After it was all over, Paul approached chimchar and convinced him to become his pokemon.

SERENA: That's a good story.

ASH: A bond between those 2 was created on that day.

ASH: However, me and Paul managed to make it to the semifinals of the tournament, thanks to me taking control of chimchar when Paul refused to give it any commands due to the fact that it got scared when it was battling a zangoose during the tag battle.

ASH: After the battle ended and at sunset of that day, Paul released chimchar and we ended up seeing the whole thing.

ASH: He went on to say that it was obvious that he needed to get a new fire type pokemon.

SERENA: That's just awful.

ASH: So then, i invited chimchar to join my team and he gladly accepted.

SERENA: That's just great.

ASH: I know.

ASH: Anyways, me and Paul managed to defeat Brock and Holly very easily.

ASH: Although, i have to admit, Paul's torterra did most of the battling.

ASH: In fact, his torterra was so strong, it managed to defeat Holly's pokemon with just 1 immensely powerful hyper beam.

SERENA: It managed to spit out a hyper beam that powerful?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: In fact, it was so powerful, that it shooked the whole arena.

SERENA: (screaming) AHHHHH!

ASH: What's the matter?

SERENA: It shooked the whole freaking arena with just 1 hyper beam?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (scared) Well that sounds pretty darn scary.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyways, we quickly made it to the finals where we were matched up against Dawn and Conway.

ASH: During the battle, Paul's elekid evolved into electabuzz, which helped us win the final battle of the tag team tournament.

ASH: We won the tournament and both received a soothe bell as a prize.

SERENA: That's grand great.

ASH: However, after the tournament was over, he gave his bell to me, claiming that he had no need for it.

SERENA: That arrogant spoiled brat of a jerk.

ASH: After he left, Conway told me that i should go to the gym in Veilstone City, which happened to be Paul's home town.

SERENA: Keep on going with this story!

ASH: On our way to Veilstone City, me and company got attacked by a bunch of zangooses, which caused chimchar to remember some scary and painful memories.

ASH: However, he managed to face his fear of zangooses and defeats them all with out even using blaze.

SERENA: That's what i like to hear.

ASH: Fast forward to a few days later, i realized that my aipom was more interested in coordinator contests and Dawn realized that her buziel was more interested in gym battles.

ASH: As a result, we took Zoey's advice and traded our pokemon.

ASH: On that day, Buziel became my pokemon and aipom became Dawn's pokemon.

SERENA: You 2 really throwed the track switch that day.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Shortly after the trade off, aipom evolved into ambipom.

ASH: Fast forward a few days later and me and company had made it to Veilstone City.

ASH: In the forest in Veilstone City, me and company witnessed a lucario and a young female martial artist in a fierce hand to foot combat battle.

ASH: The girl was revealed to be Maylene, the city's gym leader, at which point i immediately asked for a gym battle.

ASH: She declined at first and further insight into the matter was revealed by Reggie, Paul's older brother.

SERENA: No freaking way.

SERENA: Was this the first time you and company met Reggie?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Me and company was shocked too.

SERENA: So with the matter at hand, why did Maylene decline to have a gym battle with you?

ASH: She had very recently lost a gym battle to Paul.

SERENA: Oh no.

SERENA: I think i know where this is headed.

ASH: Reggie told me and company that Paul's pokemon defeated Maylene's first 2 pokemon in no time flat.

ASH: He went on to say that Maylene's third and strongest pokemon, lucario, ended up being defeated by Paul's magmar.

ASH: That's when Maylene told all of us that it didn't even look like a battle with a gym leader.

ASH: She went on to say that she could hardly blame Paul for what he said to her.

SERENA: What did Paul say to her?

ASH: You're the weakest.

ASH: The weakest gym leader i ever fought and this light weight badge is just like you.

ASH: That's what she said that he said to her after he won and earned the badge from her.

SERENA: That cruel heartless creepy jerk.

ASH: After she told us all that, she ran off to be alone.

ASH: Dawn followed her to have a girl talk with her.

SERENA: That was nice of her.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Mean while, me, Brock, pikachu, and chimchar were eating, talking, and relaxing at Reggie's house.

ASH: He noticed that i was chimchar's trainer now and was impressed by how good it was doing and looked.

ASH: He then went on to ask me if Paul's intense battling styles were putting me through my paces and i told him that i didn't care about any of that.

ASH: I went on to say that a pokemon battle is about becoming one with your pokemon.

ASH: I also said that i would beat him one day.

ASH: Reggie then told me that he would love to see me and Paul have a full on pokemon battle.

ASH: I was caught off guard by the statement.

ASH: Anyways, me and Reggie decided to have a best 2 out of 3 pokemon battle.

ASH: Just before the battle began, Dawn and Maylene showed up, sit down, and watched the whole thing.

ASH: I ended up winning the battle, but not before Reggie showed me a special attack called brave bird.

ASH: After the battle ended, i asked Maylene again for a gym battle, but before she could give me a clear answer, Dawn interrupted us and told everyone that she challenged Maylene to a gym battle first.

SERENA: You don't say.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Maylene accepted and told her that they would battle the next day.

ASH: That same day, Dawn's pokemon did a little training and Reggie was helping me helping staravia learn the brave bird attack.

SERENA: Did he?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: Well done.

ASH: The next day came and Dawn was pumped up for some action.

ASH: However, Dawn was only able to defeat 1 out of 3 of Maylene's pokemon.

ASH: She lost badly.

SERENA: The fact that she was only able to beat 1 out of 3 of Maylene's pokemon means that she didn't put up a good fight.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: She did some what good.

ASH: After the battle was over, Maylene thanked her for making her remember her love for battling.

ASH: The next day, it was my turn to battle Maylene and what a battle it was.

SERENA: Give me the details!

ASH: I was able to knock out Maylene's first 2 pokemon with out losing 1 of my pokemon.

ASH: I also told staravia to use his newly learned brave bird attack and he did.

ASH: Just when it looked like Maylene was going to lose for sure, she brought out lucario.

ASH: Out of all of her pokemon, lucario is the strongest.

ASH: Lucario managed to defeat staravia and chimchar very easily.

ASH: The match was mostly even.

ASH: She had 1 pokemon that endured little damage and i had 1 pokemon that was starting out fresh.

ASH: It was buziel vs lucario.

ASH: It was a hard fought fight.

ASH: During the match, buziel and lucario each threw a powerful attack at each other that literally broke the roof off.

SERENA: Woah!

SERENA: So you mean to tell me the collision from the attacks blew a hole in the roof of the gym?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: Something that powerful must've shook the hole gym.

ASH: No, but it was powerful.

ASH: Anyways, it started raining inside the gym because of the giant hole in the roof.

ASH: The rain gave my buziel a power boost that made him a little faster and stronger.

ASH: Even so, the match between me and Maylene ended in a tie with both buziel and lucario knocked out cold.

SERENA: You and Maylene are so awesome.

SERENA: Your pokemon are too.

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: Did you still get the badge?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: In fact, Maylene said i challenged her to the greatest gym match she's ever had.

SERENA: That gym battle is one for the history books.

ASH: No doubt.

ASH: That night, me, Dawn, Brock, and pikachu decided to spend the night in Veilstone City before heading out in the morning.

ASH: Reggie took us to the park to see the meteoric stones.

ASH: They were really cool looking.

ASH: However, a group of criminals known as team galactic appeared and tried to steal for their evil plan.

SERENA: What was their evil plan?

ASH: At the time, they didn't give me and my friends a straight answer.

ASH: Maylene and lucario also helped me, Dawn, Brock, Reggie, pikachu, and officer Jenny fight off team galactic.

ASH: However, team galactic got away in their helicopters.

SERENA: That's to bad.

ASH: The next morning, me, Dawn, Brock, and pikachu said bye to Reggie and Maylene and went on our way.

ASH: Several days later, me, Dawn, Brock, and pikachu meet the champion of the Hoenn Region, Wallace.

ASH: He said he would be holding a pokémon contest and that the winner would receive a ribbon that can be used anywhere.

ASH: We spent the day with him, resulting in advice from Wallace for Dawn to play with her pokémon more and for me to enter Buizel in the contest.

ASH: I agreed to do it.

SERENA: Who won the pokemon contest?

ASH: I'm getting there.

ASH: Later on, i received a phone call from an old friend of mine.

ASH: The friend in question was May.

SERENA: I so love where this is going.

ASH: Me, Brock, Dawn, and pikachu, were excited when May came to visit Sinnoh for the Wallace cup.

ASH: She was still training to become a top coordinator.

ASH: She brought us all gifts.

ASH: May and Dawn were excited to see each other for the first time.

ASH: I asked May what Max has been up to these days.

SERENA: What did she say?

ASH: She said he was hard at work, taking care of their father's pokemon.

ASH: She went on to say that he would always talk about doing it just like he learned from Brock and that their dad was as proud as he could be.

ASH: Max kept a close eye on Brock.

ASH: Especially when Brock would start flirting with a girl.

ASH: Every time that happened, Max would yank him by the ear and away from the female.

SERENA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

SERENA: That's funny.

ASH: Even though Max was only a 7 year old little boy when i met him, he knew an immense amount of pokemon facts.

SERENA: He was probably the smartest 7 year old little boy in the world when it comes to pokemon facts.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: May also said that her rivals Drew and Harley were as strong as ever and that she couldn't seem to beat either of them.

SERENA: That sounds like a big set back.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: May even made reservations for us at the most popular restaurant in Sinnoh.

ASH: Upon arrival at the 7 stars restaurant, all of us except May, found out that those who win a tag battle against the restaurant's owners are the only ones that can dine in the restaurant.

ASH: Those who lose leave with empty stomachs.

SERENA: The owners sound like avid battle fans.

ASH: They are.

ASH: Me and Brock were able to win the tag battle against them with only 1 hit each.

SERENA: You 2 rocked hard.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Afterwards, May used her blaziken and Dawn used piplup and together they created a fantastic fire slash water combination in their battle, thus winning the tag battle too.

ASH: The meal we had at that 7 stars restaurant was the best finger licking meal we ever had.

ASH: The next day, me and the others arrived at the lake resort where the Wallace cup was going to take place.

ASH: Zoey also arrived and competed too.

ASH: Right when the contest began, Dawn becomes nervous and had trouble keeping her composure.

ASH: Meanwhile, May decided to enter with her wartortle and i entered in with buizel.

ASH: Me, May, Dawn, and Zoey all made it past the appeal stage which is the first stage.

SERENA: Good for you 4.

ASH: It was good.

ASH: That night, i took a walk near the Lake Valor with pikachu when suddenly, something in the center of the lake began to glow and it turns out that Azelf appeared.

SERENA: Who's Azelf?

ASH: I'll tell you about that a little later.

ASH: Anyways, when i tried to approach it, the shadow disappeared again.

ASH: The next day, the second round of the Wallace cup began.

ASH: May's Venusaur was then revealed.

ASH: May, Dawn, and Zoey made it to the semi finals, but i lost to a tough coordinator named Kyle.

SERENA: That's to bad.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: After it's Dawn's turn to battle Kyle in the semi finals, she used her piplup against his crawdaunt.

ASH: Dawn defeated Kyle and May defeated Zoey in the semi finals and both had to battle in the final round.

ASH: In the finals, Dawn faced off against May in the Wallace Cup.

ASH: Dawn used her piplup and May used her glaceon.

ASH: Dawn managed to narrowly defeat May's glaceon by only a fraction.

ASH: After the contest ended, Dawn earned her second pokemon contest ribbon.

ASH: Now that the contest was over, May departed from me, Dawn, and Brock once again and went back to Johto.

SERENA: That was a pokemon contest to remember.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: A few days after May's departure, me and company were running after my gligar, who had been blown away by a gust of wind and promptly ran into Paul.

SERENA: I already hate where this is going.

ASH: Me too.

ASH: Anyways, after a loud argument about our different ways of training and treating pokémon, i challenged Paul to a 3 on 3 battle and he accepted.

ASH: My first pokemon lost, but during chimchar's battle with Paul's ursaring, it activated it's special ability which was an over powering blaze.

ASH: At first, chimchar was terrified of ursaring, but after taking a severe amount of damage, that's when chimchar used blaze.

ASH: I then told chimchar to use flame wheel while he was in blaze mode and he managed to not only land a hit on ursaring, but defeated him with that 1 attack.

ASH: After returning ursaring back to it's poke ball, Paul said that that was probably the most powerful flame wheel he had ever seen.

SERENA: That was so heated and i mean that in a good way.

ASH: It wasn't good for long.

ASH: Chimchar also got confused and started randomly attacking anyone in his path.

ASH: He almost started a wild fire after his battle with ursaring ended and he even tried to attack Paul.

SERENA: That was heated in a bad way.

SERENA: However!

ASH: However what?

SERENA: (laughing evily) Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

ASH: Did i say a joke?

SERENA: (talking with an evil smile on her face) It's not that.

SERENA: (talking with an evil smile on her face) I just wish i could've seen Paul's angry looking face when chimchar tried to go blaze all over him.

SERENA: (talking with an evil smile on her face) Poor purple Paul must've been so scared, he almost peed his pants.

ASH: Not quite.

ASH: I eventually grabbed ahold of chimchar and tried to calm him down, but he ended up biting me on the shoulder.

SERENA: Ouch!

ASH: I still didn't let go and after yelling at the top of my lungs for him to stop, he finally did.

ASH: Paul then asked me if i thought i could learn how to control that power and i said i didn't know for sure, but that i would try.

ASH: He then called me a fool and told me that when me and chimchar learn how to control his blaze, that we would battle again some day and i told him it was a deal.

SERENA: The fact that Paul wasn't able to get chimchar to use blaze and you did means that you're the only one who could bring out chimchar's true power.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: A few days after that, i managed to win the fen badge when i defeated Crasher at the Pastoria Gym.

SERENA: Way to go, Ash.

ASH: I'm a winner.

ASH: Anyways, a short while after winning the fen badge, i continued my training with gligar, but found out it had became fearful of battles since the battle against Paul's gliscor.

ASH: We met up with Gary again and i asked him to help me solve the problem i had with gligar and Gary gave me a razor fang, which made gligar evolve into gliscor.

SERENA: It must have been a magical razor fang.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyways, a few days afterwards, me and the gang were invited to attend a pokémon academy and we decided to enter it.

ASH: For our first task, we chose a poke ball that contained a pokémon inside.

ASH: The trainers then had to train the pokémon and be able to use it in a battle.

ASH: We then met a girl named Angie and ended up meeting Conway again.

SERENA: This is getting very good.

ASH: At first, when me and Angie met, we argued and didn't like each other.

ASH: We met when we both grabbed the same poke ball in a box full of poke balls at the same time.

ASH: We both ended up in a tug of war for the poke ball and then she told me that there's nothing ruder than a guy that ignores ladies first.

SERENA: So true.

ASH: I'm not surprised that you'd take her side on the subject.

SERENA: Just keep talking wise guy.

ASH: Anyways, i was shocked to hear her say that because she looked like a dude with her short hair.

ASH: Talk about awkward!

ASH: I got a raichu for a partner, Dawn got a muk for a partner, Angie got a monferno for a partner, and Brock got a meta tight for a partner.

ASH: Anyways, me and Angie ate, slept, and argued together in class.

SERENA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

SERENA: Ash, class isn't a place for napping.

SERENA: It's a place for getting an edumacation.

ASH: I know that, but some of the stuff 1 of our teachers was talking about was so boring to me and Angie.

ASH: Anyways, me, Dawn, Angie, and Brock ended up sharing a bunk room, but we couldn't sleep that night because our teachers sent us to bed to early.

ASH: That's when Dawn brought out her playing cards.

ASH: That's when Angie told us a little about herself.

ASH: She said that she helps her parents run a pokemon day care center and that it's so busy that she hardly has a free moment.

ASH: She also said that it's lots of fun, that she's learning a whole lot, that she wouldn't trade it, and that 1 day she hopes to take over the business.

ASH: She asked me what was my dream and i told her that i was going to become a pokemon master and she kinda laughed at me.

SERENA: How rude.

ASH: I know, right.

ASH: Anyways, she asked Dawn and Brock about their dreams and Dawn told her that she was going to be a top coordinator and Brock said he was going to be a top pokemon breeder.

ASH: She said we all dream really big, but then 1 of our teachers stormed in and yelled "WHAT PART OF LIGHTS OUT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?".

ASH: We then had no choice, but to call it a night.

ASH: The next day, i was busy training and getting to know raichu better and Angie was training and getting to know monferno better.

ASH: When we were both done, we ran into each other and we both had messed up hair from training our partner pokemon.

ASH: We then raced each other around the school yard.

ASH: It was awesome.

ASH: Later that day, a series of pokemon battles took place.

ASH: Brock defeated Jesselina who was also at the pokemon academy, Dawn and Conway defeated each other, and me and Angie defeated each other.

ASH: I could tell that while Dawn and Conway were in the middle of their pokemon battle, that they really connected to each other in a bonding kind of way.

ASH: The same goes for me and Angie.

ASH: We really bonded during our pokemon battle and it was truly awesome and romantic in a rivalry kind of way.

Serena gets a little worried after hearing that last sentence Ash spoke.

SERENA: (talking nervously) Was it really truly romantic in a rivalry kind of way?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyways, that evening, Professor Rowan announced the student who most developed his or her relationship with their pokemon.

ASH: From the red team, it was Dawn and after tallying up the totality of the 3 teams for the past 2 days, the blue team had the highest number of points, the green team came in second place, and coming in dead last was the red team.

ASH: That was the same team me, Dawn, Angie, and Brock was on.

ASH: Even though the red team battled valiantly, Professor Rowan took off points for all the arguing that happened the day before and for that unexpected day time nap me and Angie took.

SERENA: So basically it was both yours' and Angie's fault for you 2 and the rest of the red team being in last place.

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: I thought so.

ASH: Any who, that evening, we all had a big dinner and it was good.

ASH: The next day, Professor Rowan told us to observe the water pokemon in the near by lake.

ASH: Another teacher told all of us to find a pokemon and then write a report, make a sketch, or express our finding on it in any way we choose and that we would be graded on it in a final presentation.

ASH: We were told to work on our own or in groups if we preferred.

ASH: The pokemon in the lake were still being researched and were off limits when it comes to catching them.

ASH: It was also forbidden to leave the area.

ASH: Me and Angie decided to take a peddle boat out on the lake and Dawn and Brock did the same.

ASH: We got into a little argument while on the lake and the pokemon we drew in our sketch books looked bad.

ASH: That's when i decided that jumping into the lake to get an up close and personal look at the water pokemon would be helpful and the others followed my lead.

ASH: After we were done swimming with the water pokemon, me, Angie, Brock, and Dawn found that our pokémon were becoming hypnotized when they spotted a flashing light in the trees.

ASH: Conway told us the legend of the flashing blue light and that when it flashes, pokemon start vanishing.

SERENA: Spooky!

ASH: Yes!

ASH: That's when we all decided to go and investigate what was going on.

SERENA: What did you find?

ASH: We found a cave and went inside it.

ASH: Upon entering, we saw a mysterious glowing green light in the distance and then Conway told us that the legend states that the strange blue light comes fourth from the green cave.

ASH: We went towards the green part of the cave and found a body of green glowing water.

ASH: We then saw a pair of blue glowing eyes swimming in the green water and saw that the blue eyes was what was hypnotizing our pokemon.

ASH: The entity with the blue glowing eyes jumped out of the water and it was a fish pokemon.

ASH: Conway explained to us that it was a neon pokemon and that it has the power to lure other pokemon by flashing the patterns of light with it's tail fins.

ASH: We were about to observe it when all of a sudden, Jesselina happened to show up and told us she was going to catch the fish neon pokemon even though that was against the rules.

ASH: Me, Dawn, Angie, and Brock were about to stop her, but Conway told us that he would handle it and told Dawn that he'd wage this battle for her.

SERENA: Awwwww!

SERENA: That was such a sweet and romantic gesture he gave Dawn.

ASH: I wouldn't go that far.

SERENA: No surprise there.

ASH: What do you mean?

SERENA: Just forget it!

ASH: Anyways, Conway defeated Jesselina easily and she made like an egg and splited.

ASH: After it was over, the fish neon pokemon had vanished and me and my buziel swam in the green water and looked for it.

ASH: We couldn't find it, but we did find a tunnel at the bottom of the lake.

ASH: Brock then said that the tunnel was probably connected to the ocean and that the fish neon pokemon used that vary tunnel to travel from it's home to the green body of water.

ASH: Brock went on to say that a lot of the green sea weed had been eaten near the green water and that the sea weed was a favorite dish for water pokemon.

ASH: He also concluded that the fish neon pokemon was the one that ate it.

ASH: We had all the details to write up a great report.

ASH: When we came out of the cave, the rain had stopped and we saw a gorgeous rainbow.

ASH: We then ran back to the pokemon academy and all of us, except for Conway, gave our report to the rest of the students with the use of properly drawn out sketches and explanations.

ASH: Everybody, including the teachers, all loved it.

ASH: Professor Rowan said it was an exceptional report and he gave us all a full 10 points.

ASH: However, he told us we all left the lake area with out permission and then he asked us did we have any idea how worried he and the other teachers were about us.

ASH: 1 of the teachers told us that for breaking the rules, they would subtract 4 points from each of us, leaving us with only 6 points each.

SERENA: Darn it.

SERENA: They're hard core.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Jesselina also lost 4 points for leaving the lake area.

SERENA: That was good for that hussy.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Conway also lost 4 of his points too.

SERENA: That's so unfair.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: We all had clean up duty that evening in the inside of the pokemon academy.

ASH: Me and Dawn cleaned the windows and Angie and Brock mopped the floors.

ASH: We were still in a good mood even though we lost 4 points each.

ASH: That's because we saw a fish neon pokemon, which is a rare sight to see.

ASH: Anyways, after that night, me and the others were training at the Summer Academy.

ASH: We were taught how to deal with ghost type pokémon, should we ever run into them.

ASH: Me, Angie, Brock, Conway, Dawn, and all the other class mates were paired with each other.

ASH: Brock and Mitchel were partners, Dawn and Kendel were partners, and so were me and Angie.

ASH: Angie asked me to partner up with her and i said okay.

SERENA: That's to bad.

ASH: What's so bad about it?

SERENA: Never mind.

SERENA: Continue!

ASH: Anyways, we were paired up to find a hidden treasure.

ASH: The test between the red, blue, and green teams took place at different locations, but were the exact same distance from the hidden treasure.

ASH: The test started at exactly 7:00 pm in the woods.

ASH: While searching, Conway had a run in with a ghost girl that almost made him walk off a cliff.

SERENA: Was that for real?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: We weren't there to see it, but Dawn and Conway told us about it after the test had ended.

ASH: The ghost was a little ghost girl.

SERENA: It was a shape shifter.

ASH: Yes again.

ASH: Anyways, the same little girl appeared to me and Angie after we had gotten lost in the woods.

ASH: She was telling us to come with her and so we did.

ASH: She eventually lead us to a temple that had the prize winning summit ruins medals in front of the temple.

ASH: Me and Angie took one of the summit ruins medals out of the case and did a victory pose together.

ASH: After that, she stood in front of a cave, near the temple, gesturing us to follow her into the cave.

ASH: Just then, a dusknoir appeared in front of us and used physic on us and our pokemon.

ASH: Pikachu and Angie's shinx were able to break out of dusknoir's physic and then we told them to attack dusknoir and they did.

ASH: After dusknoir got knocked out, the little girl gestured for us to go into the cave with her again.

ASH: We wouldn't go with her because we were worried about the dusknoir waking up and trying to attack us again and that's when things got scary.

SERENA: What happened next?

ASH: A red, black, and purple portal at the entrance of the cave appeared and it started trying to suck me, Angie, shinx, and pikachu inside it.

ASH: I saved her life in some ways that night.

SERENA: How?

ASH: You won't believe it, but she almost got sucked into a portal that lead to the spirit world, but i wasn't about to let that happen.

ASH: So i grabbed her hand tight and holded on a big rock.

ASH: Pikachu and shinx were trying to hold on to me.

ASH: Just then, dusknoir woke up and got between the portal and the 4 of us.

ASH: It blasted the little ghost girl with one of its' attacks and blasted her back into the portal.

ASH: The portal then disappeared.

ASH: After that, dusknoir flew away.

SERENA: Talk about scary!

ASH: Yes!

ASH: I still have nightmares about that night.

ASH: Anyways, the next day Professor Rowan gave the red, blue, and green teams 30 points each.

SERENA: That's good to hear.

ASH: I know.

ASH: The next day, me and all the other students had to use a pokemon to bring them across a rigorous track to the finish line.

ASH: Finally after a tough competition, me and pikachu came in at first place and Angie and her shinx came in at second place, which led to the victory of the red team.

ASH: The series of challenges ended with the red team having a total of 380, the blue team having a total of 370 points, and the green team having a total of 280 points.

ASH: Everyone was given a certificate as a reward.

ASH: We all had an amazing feast that night by the bon camp fire.

ASH: Me and Angie had a private conversation away from the other campers that night.

SERENA: About what?

ASH: She told me that she had been to the pokemon summer academy like a million times, but the year she and i experienced was by far the best hands down.

ASH: She also told me that the most amazing thing that happened to her was that i saved her life twice.

ASH: The second time was during the rigorous marathon when she almost fell down a deep whole while trying to save her shinx.

ASH: Anyways, we shook hands and i promised her that we'd meet again some day.

ASH: At first we didn't really like each other, but as time went on, we grew to truly and deeply care for one another.

After hearing that last sentence, Serena gets a little nervous.

SERENA: (talking nervously) Um, Ash.

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (talking nervously) Do you love Angie?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (panicking) WHAT!

ASH: Well yeah.

ASH: She may have gotten on my bad side when we first met, but i do still love her deeply.

SERENA: (talking nervously) I know you love her, but are you in love with her?

ASH: Oh, that's what you ment.

ASH: (shocked) HUH!

SERENA: (talking nervously) Ash, are you in love with her?

ASH: (acting, blushing, and yelling nervously) NO NO NO!

ASH: (acting and blushing nervously) I'll admit that i love her deeply, but i don't love her like a girlfriend.

SERENA: Oh good.

SERENA: (talking nervously) I mean uh, i'm happy that you and Angie have such a friendly relationship.

SERENA: (talking nervously) That's what i ment.

Serena stops talking nervously.

ASH: Oh!

ASH: Anyways, the next day, all the students said good bye to each other and that we'd see each other again some day.

ASH: That was an awesome week i'll probably never forget.

SERENA: It sounded like an exciting experience.

SERENA: So what happened after that?

ASH: A few days later, me and company met Fantina, the Heart Home City gym leader.

ASH: We met her in Celestic Town, where Dawn planned to enter a contest.

ASH: Fantina was in the middle of a battle with Zoey when we arrived.

ASH: We watched Fantina and her mismagius defeat Zoey and her glameow easily with a powerful strategy.

ASH: When me and Dawn both asked for a battle against Fantina, she said her pokemon were too tired to have two more battles, so she could only battle one of us.

ASH: Dawn used her coin toss application and i picked the winning side.

ASH: Therefore, i had an unofficial battle with Fantina.

ASH: I decided to use buizel, chimchar, and pikachu against Fantina's drifloon.

ASH: Her drifloon defeated buizel and put chimchar to sleep.

ASH: Next, i used Pikachu, but during the battle, drifloon evolved into drifblim and put pikachu to sleep.

ASH: Therefore, i forfeited because pikachu and chimchar were both asleep and couldn't battle.

ASH: We agreed to battle again another day when i was strong enough.

SERENA: She beat you really bad.

ASH: Big time.

ASH: A few days later, team galactic stole the lustrous orb and the adamant orb from the Celestic Town museum.

ASH: Me and company were helped by Cynthia to stop team galactic from stealing the lustrous orb and the adamant orb, but we failed because we had no idea how large team galactic was.

SERENA: You and the others just some how kept running into them for some strange reason.

ASH: It was starting to become a series of ominous and strange coincidences for us.

ASH: Moving on to a more pleasant topic, shortly after that last encounter with team galactic, me and company arrived back in Solaceon Town and we met up with Angie at her parent's pokemon day care.

SERENA: (sounding a little angry) You've got to be kidding.

ASH: Nah!

ASH: I was happy to run into her again.

SERENA: (sounding a little angry) I guess you fulfilled the promise you made to her when you told her that you and her would meet again in the future.

ASH: Yep!

SERENA: (sounding a little angry) You sure did make good on your promise early.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Anyways, she told me and company that her parents were gone for a while.

ASH: Me, Dawn, and Brock told her about the strange monster terrorizing Solaceon Town.

SERENA: Now i'm getting scared.

ASH: She later revealed that the monster was a lickilicky that she evolved from a lickitung after training it to well.

ASH: We then went out and helped her find the lickilicky and brought it back.

ASH: Her parents arrived after we found it and they weren't to happy about hearing that lickitung evolved into lickilicky, especially her father.

ASH: Lickilicky's trainer then arrived and was actually happy that Angie managed to evolve his pokemon for him.

ASH: Therefore, we all got off easy.

ASH: We then said good bye to Angie for a second time.

SERENA: Great!

ASH: Eventually, we ran into Paul again.

SERENA: Oh boy.

ASH: We had a one on one battle with my turtwig against his honchkrow and even though my turtwig evolved into a grotle at the last minute, it still lost to his honchkrow.

SERENA: That must've been disappointing.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyways, grotle got up late that night and unsuccessfully tried to regain its agility.

ASH: Just then, Paul's torterra showed up and comforted grotle by showing it that speed isn't the only thing that's important about battles.

ASH: Torterra told grotle that it could also rely on defense.

ASH: Torterra showed an example with my gliscor using a steel wing attack straight to the head.

ASH: Torterra emerged unscathed and grotle resumed to its normal behavior.

SERENA: Hard to believe one of Paul's pokemon was that nice.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Fast forward a little bit and me and the gang arrived at the Heart Home Gym.

ASH: We then ran into Barry, a trainer from Twinleaf Town.

ASH: Barry turned out to be an admirer of Paul, whom he saw when watching the double battle tournament.

ASH: I challenged Barry to a pokemon battle.

ASH: I chosed chimchar, gliscor, and pikachu against Barry's staraptor, roserade, and empoleon.

ASH: I managed to narrowly defeat Barry by finishing off empoleon with pikachu's volt tackle.

SERENA: Good for you and i'm guessing you and Barry didn't exactly get along when you first met him.

SERENA: After all, he was Paul's admirer.

ASH: You're right.

ASH: We didn't exactly get along when we first met.

ASH: Shortly after meeting Barry, he got to witness my gym battle against Fantina.

ASH: Using my new counter shield strategy, my buizel defeated her gengar, my chimchar defeated her mismagius, but pikachu got defeated by her driftblim when Fantina used her own strategy against me.

ASH: Buizel also got defeated by driftblim, but chimchar finally defeated driftblim and i won the relic badge.

ASH: Barry, having seen me defeat a gym leader he lost to, declared me as his rival if i could beat the leader of the Canalave gym.

SERENA: That sounded like a challenge.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyways, me and company, along with Barry, took a ride in a blimp to Canalave City.

ASH: When we arrived, team rocket, disguised as photographers, tricked us into taking a picture of all of our pokemon, which actually turned out to be a net to steal them.

ASH: The pokemon fought back to attempt to escape and everyone's pokemon, including team rocket's, got blown away into the sky and they all got separated.

ASH: A chase ensued when team rocket declared that whom ever should find the pokemon first, gets to keep them all.

ASH: Me and my group found our pokemon and team rocket found their pokemon.

ASH: We then blasted them into the sky.

SERENA: They seem to love getting blasted into the sky over and over again.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: After that, Barry said bye to us and traveled his own way.

ASH: The next thing i remember after that is that i was excited to finally reach the Canalave Gym once more, for my next gym battle.

ASH: However, Byron's apprentice told me and the others that he was having conflicts with his son.

SERENA: What kind of conflicts?

ASH: Me and the others also met Byron of the Canalave Gym.

ASH: Though, both Roark and Byron were having a fight over which one loves fossils the most.

ASH: Brock suggested that they should have a battle to determine which fossil pokemon, rampardos or bastiodon, is the strongest.

ASH: However, the battle got interrupted.

ASH: Later on, team rocket stole all of Byron's fossils and we all ran after them.

ASH: Later, team rocket got defeated.

ASH: After all that was over, i eventually got my gym battle against Byron.

ASH: I decided to use my chimchar, buizel, and gliscor against Byron's bronzor, steelix, and bastiodon.

ASH: I tried to dominate the battle with fire attacks, but Byron's defense oriented battling style prevented me from dealing much damage.

ASH: My chimchar eventually defeated his bronzor, but buizel quickly lost to steelix.

ASH: I then used chimchar again against steelix and triumphed, but next, Byron used bastiodon and defeated chimchar.

ASH: I then used gliscor against bastiodon and after a tough battle, me and gliscor emerged victorious.

SERENA: I knew you could do it.

ASH: Me too.

ASH: I then got the mine badge which was my 6th Sinnoh badge.

ASH: Eventually, i contacted Barry about the fact that i got my mine badge.

ASH: Unfortunately, Barry was in a place called Iron Island and he told us that the steel pokemon on Iron Island were acting strangely, even his empoleon.

SERENA: This sounds interesting.

SERENA: Please go on!

ASH: So me and company took the next ferry to Iron Island.

ASH: Upon arrival, we searched for Barry and encountered steel pokemon running amok.

ASH: We got saved by a trainer named Riley and his pokemon partner lucario.

ASH: Riley introduced himself and said that he was a pokemon trainer that lived on Iron Island and that his lucario was able to use its aura to protect itself from the low frequency wave that was driving other steel pokemon mad.

ASH: Me and the gang, along with Riley and lucario, tracked team galactic down and found that the ruins were made of metal.

ASH: Because of that and the fact that team galactic had a magic key, they were the ones causing the low frequency wave.

ASH: If i remember correctly, i think team galactic's commander released the magic key and it melded with the ruins, which released a huge bolt of energy.

ASH: The waves knocked lucario out and it became over came by a strange power.

ASH: It lost control and prepared to attack me and my friends.

SERENA: That's awful.

ASH: Fortunately, he went back to normal quickly.

SERENA: That's great.

ASH: We figured out that the cause of all the pokemon's outbursts were some low frequency waves that were being emitted after an accident.

ASH: We searched for the source of these waves that were caused by none other than team galactic.

ASH: No surprise there.

ASH: We then decided to go near it, but when piplup jumped, it was not able to reach the ground and fell in the hole.

ASH: Dawn saw Barry and team rocket in the hole.

ASH: She used a rope to get them out, but also fell in the hole.

ASH: Meanwhile, me and pikachu destroyed the machine and all the steel pokemon turned back normal.

ASH: Team galactic's plan didn't work out so well, so they attempted to blow up Iron Island.

SERENA: (shocked) THEY WHAT?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: They attempted to blow up the entire island with me, my pals, and team rocket, still on it.

SERENA: (shocked) Compared to team galactic, team rocket look like saints.

ASH: I agree.

ASH: Anyways, me and Brock thought of a way to help Dawn, Barry, and team rocket.

ASH: I tried to get chimchar to dig a tunnel for them to get out of the hole, but the ground was too hard.

ASH: Team rocket's carnivine some how learned how to use vine whip.

ASH: Grotle grabbed carnivine's vine whips and got everyone out.

ASH: Team galactic grunts placed bombs below the ruins, but Riley and lucario trapped it with their aura and released it above from Iron Island.

SERENA: That's amazing.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Team galactic got away, but fortunately, the crisis was over and the mystery was bad history.

ASH: Me and company said good bye to Barry and left Iron Island.

ASH: Eventually, we got to Chocovine Town and that's where Dawn met Ursula for the first time.

ASH: Ursula saw Dawn's piplup and remembered that she entered the Wallace cup.

ASH: She was a bit rude and cocky towards Dawn because she said that Dawn winning the Wallace cup was all an accident.

ASH: As a result, Dawn was determined to show the arrogant coordinator what she was capable of.

SERENA: So how'd it go?

ASH: Dawn faced Ursula in the finals.

ASH: Dawn used her pachirisu and Ursula used her Gabite.

ASH: Ursula got a big starting lead, then Dawn made a come back with pachirisu's super fang and dodged gabite's attacks.

ASH: Dawn defeated Ursula and won the Chocovine Town ribbon, her fourth ribbon.

ASH: Ursula congratulated Dawn in a rude way and left.

SERENA: Sounded like someone was a sore loser.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: The next thing i remember, we arrived at a windy town where we heard of a poke ringer competition.

ASH: I decided to enter it with my staravia.

ASH: I later found out that Paul was also entering the competition with his honchkrow.

SERENA: I sense a bitter battle that you're going to tell me about.

ASH: It wasn't exactly bitter.

ASH: Eventually, me and Paul faced off in the finals.

SERENA: Some how that doesn't surprise me.

ASH: Paul's honchkrow got the upper hand until my staravia evolved into a staraptor and learned close combat.

ASH: I actually defeated Paul for the first time and won the poke ringer competition.

SERENA: I bet that felt like a major victory for you.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyways, fast forward a couple of days and Dawn's piplup started to show signs of evolution, but as soon as piplup began to evolve, it stopped itself by using bide and then collapsed after using it.

ASH: Barry and Kenny showed up and told Dawn all about how great it will be when piplup evolves.

ASH: Dawn found piplup and it began to evolve, but stopped itself again.

ASH: Piplup basically told Dawn it didn't want to evolve and ran off.

ASH: After being attacked by team rocket, Dawn decided not to evolve piplup and Nurse Joy gave Dawn an ever stone to prevent piplup from evolving.

SERENA: It's clear that Dawn and piplup have a strong bond.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Eventually, Dawn's ambipom learned about its talent at pokemon ping pong.

ASH: Me, Dawn, and Barry entered the pokemon ping pong tournament that involved trainers and one of their pokemon to compete against each other in tag teams.

ASH: After ambipom got injured from playing ping pong against O and his Shiftry, ambipom was still into it.

ASH: It lost.

ASH: The ping pong expert, O, offered to train with ambipom to be the best.

ASH: Dawn gave ambipom to O and that was that.

SERENA: It must've been hard for her to give ambipom away.

ASH: It kinda was.

SERENA: It must've been hard for you too.

SERENA: After all, you were ambipom's original trainer before you gave it to Dawn.

ASH: It was hard to say good bye to that funny hat stealing pokemon.

ASH: However, me and Dawn both knew it was in good hands.

ASH: We were also happy for it because it was going to become a master pokemon ping pong player.

ASH: After saying good bye to ambipom, me and the others reached Snow Point City.

ASH: Me and my friends were welcomed by the gym leader of the Snow Point gym, Candice.

ASH: Me and my friends accepted her offer to show us around the city.

ASH: The first place we were led to is a trainers' school where Candice works as a teacher.

SERENA: It kinda sounds like a winter version of the pokemon summer academy that you and your other friends went to.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyways, the day of my Snow Point gym battle arrived.

ASH: Candice announced that the battle would be a 4 on 4 battle.

ASH: Candice's chosen pokemon were sneasel, medicham, snover, and last, but not least, abomasnow.

ASH: My chosen pokemon were grotle, staraptor, gliscor, and last, but not least, chimchar.

ASH: I first sent out grotle to combat Candice's sneasel, which used the ice like a skating ring and overwhelmed grotle with its speed.

ASH: I then remembered the teachings of Paul's torterra.

ASH: I defeated her sneasel with grotle, i defeated her medicham with staraptor, and i defeated her snover.

ASH: When dealing with her abomansnow, i was at a big disadvantage with my other pokemon.

ASH: I then got the idea to use the ice sled strategy by telling chimchar to surf on the ice.

ASH: Despite 3 of my pokemon being weak against ice types, i still ended up winning my 7th Sinnoh league badge, the icicle badge.

SERENA: You're so awesome Ash.

ASH: Thank you.

SERENA: Your welcome.

ASH: Anyways, after the gym battle was over and i won my badge, Paul showed up and challenged Candice to a gym battle.

SERENA: This is getting very interesting.

ASH: Candice postponed her battle with Paul to the next day to heal her pokemon.

ASH: While Paul was training, Pyramod King Brandon appeared, much to everyone's shock.

SERENA: Now things are getting extremely interesting.

ASH: Reggie also appeared and explained that Brandon was the only battle frontier brain whom he couldn't beat.

ASH: Paul was then shocked by the fact that i actually defeated Brandon once.

ASH: Paul, out of the blue, asked Brandon for a battle.

ASH: Brandon accepted Paul's challenge.

ASH: Paul then had a full 6 on 6 battle with Brandon.

ASH: Paul used his nidoking, lairon, magmar, electabuzz, ursaring, and hariyama.

ASH: Brandon sent out his regirock, registeel, and regice.

SERENA: Those 3 pokemon you just named off sound very interesting and mysterious.

SERENA: What kind of pokemon are regirock, registeel, and regice?

ASH: Lets just say they aren't normal pokemon.

ASH: Their power is frightening.

ASH: Anyways, during the battle, Reggie revealed to me, Dawn, Brock, Zoey, and Candice that after he lost to Brandon, Brandon told him that although his battle with him was enjoyable, there was nothing special in his battling style and that he needed to find his true inner strength.

ASH: The battle ultimately resulted with Brandon defeating Paul with out losing a single pokemon.

SERENA: Ouch!

SERENA: I bet that was enough to seriously hurt Paul's pride and bring him down a notch.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: I'm not going to lie to you Serena.

ASH: Even though at the time, me and Paul were bitter rivals, i felt kinda bad for him after seeing all the effort he put into that full battle, only to lose humiliatingly.

SERENA: (blushing) That's one of the things i love about you Ash.

SERENA: (blushing) You're very kind hearted.

ASH: Thanks!

ASH: Anyways, he told Paul that while his pokemon were powerful, he lost because he allowed his emotions to betray him on the battle field.

ASH: Afterwards, Reggie suggested that me and Paul have a full battle.

ASH: We both agreed to do it in 10 days.

SERENA: That was a very good idea.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: 10 days came and went.

ASH: Me and my friends arrived at Lake Acuity when Paul appeared.

ASH: Reggie was there too.

ASH: There was even an official referee there too.

SERENA: It must've been a very special pokemon battle.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: First, i started out with buizel and Paul started out with his torterra.

ASH: I knew that buizel was at a disadvantage and called him back.

ASH: Then, i sent out my gliscor.

ASH: Torterra was about to fall, but suddenly, torterra made a come back.

ASH: I decided to return gliscor back after it took significant damage.

ASH: I then sent out staraptor to battle his torterra, but when staraptor used his brave bird attack, torterra hit staraptor with a stone edge attack.

ASH: Paul returned torterra and sent out his weavile.

ASH: Staraptor tried to attack, but always got hit.

ASH: However, staraptor still managed to fight back.

ASH: My staraptor's determination lead to a victory.

ASH: I returned staraptor and sent out grotle while Paul sent out electabuzz.

ASH: Grotle used energy ball while electabuzz protected itself.

ASH: Paul returned electabuzz after that and then sent out honchkrow.

SERENA: That was fast.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyways, my grotle lost against Paul's honchkrow.

ASH: Paul then sent out his newly evolved magmortar, after i called out pikachu.

ASH: Pikachu got burned by magmortar's flame body and i called it back to take a rest.

ASH: Then i called out buizel to battle magmortar.

ASH: After an extreme battle, Paul called back his magmortar and used his immensely powerful ursaring.

ASH: It defeated buizel and staraptor with frightening brute strength.

SERENA: I would not want to run up into Paul's ursaring in a dark alley.

ASH: Me neither.

ASH: Anyways, i used gliscor and his torterra defeated my gliscor.

ASH: Even pikachu was defeated by Paul's ursaring after ursaring used its special ability which was guts.

SERENA: Unreal!

SERENA: Even pikachu couldn't defeat the rampaging bare pokemon.

ASH: It shocked me too.

ASH: I was left only with chimchar.

ASH: Chimchar managed to defeat Paul's ursaring quite easily.

ASH: Afterwards, it evolved into a monferno and learned mach punch.

SERENA: That's great.

SERENA: When a pokemon evolves, they get new found power.

SERENA: In a way, it was like you started out with a fresh pokemon that had to defeat 4 damaged pokemon in order for you to win.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Unfortunately, it battled electabuzz next.

ASH: Monferno seemed to have the upper hand.

ASH: However, it got defeated and i lost the battle.

SERENA: Wow!

SERENA: I'm sorry to hear that.

ASH: It wasn't exactly a pleasant battle for me.

ASH: I then picked up monferno and thanked it for doing a good job.

ASH: I gritted my teeth as Paul left and that was that.

ASH: We didn't even say anything to each other after our full battle ended.

SERENA: Strange!

ASH: The strangest thing was that Paul didn't even call me pathetic once during our full battle.

SERENA: Well that was one good thing.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: That humiliating defeat he suffered from Brandon 10 days earlier did something to him.

ASH: That was the most focused and powerful he had ever been since i met him.

ASH: I only managed to defeat 2 out of 6 of his pokemon and it would've been 3 if his electabuzz hadn't fought so hard.

ASH: That was by far the worst defeat i ever had in a full battle.

ASH: I wasn't even able to put up a good fight.

ASH: That was a defeat i'll never forget for the rest of my life.

SERENA: It was really that bad, huh?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: The next day, with all of my pokemon badly injured and in pain after the intense battle against Paul, i felt horribly guilty and doubted my future as a pokemon trainer.

ASH: I then sunk into depression.

ASH: Dawn, having suffered a crisis of confidence herself once, resolved to help me and decided to put on a performance with her pokemon while Brock went looking for a berry to help treat my monferno's injuries.

ASH: Just then, Brock saw something mysterious at Lake Acuity.

SERENA: What was it?

ASH: After doing a little research, we found out that it was a legendary lake pokemon.

ASH: Brock ended up finding the berry for monferno.

ASH: After all 6 of my pokemon were able to get around again, they went out to find me.

ASH: I was away from the pokemon center and was lying on the grass.

ASH: I was still thinking about the huge loss i had, but then my pokemon gang found me and they were in a good mood.

ASH: They were still exhausted, but in a good mood.

ASH: I then stopped feeling depressed and told all of them that we needed to work harder than Paul so that we could beat him the next time we saw him.

ASH: We vowed that we would.

SERENA: I'm glad to hear that you got your resolve back.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Anyways, Dawn performed her private contest to cheer up me and my pokemon, but in the middle of it, team rocket showed up and tried to snatch pikachu by using my depression as an upper hand.

ASH: As usual, it was unsuccessful.

ASH: Afterwards, i thanked Dawn for being so nice to me.

ASH: She really cheered me up.

ASH: She's a very special person.

SERENA: (sounding a bit concerned) How special is she?

ASH: Words can't even describe how special she was and is.

SERENA: (sounding a little jealous) Well i bet she can't bake pastries as amazing as mine.

ASH: No, but she could bake some good pokemon poffins.

ASH: I was terrible at it.

ASH: Anyways, after traveling around for a while, we arrived at Mount Coronet which is the massive mountain that divides the Sinnoh region in half.

ASH: The mountain also divided the region's pokemon like shellos.

ASH: The blue and pink shellos ended up on the opposite side of the mountain and while trying to figure out why, piplup fell into an artificial tunnel.

ASH: We then went in to go rescue it and ended up coming across something sinister from team galactic.

ASH: We quickly took care of the situation.

SERENA: That's good.

ASH: Eventually, me and company went to Twin Leaf Town, Dawn's home town.

ASH: The entire town was preparing for the local festival and Dawn's mother, Johanna, was especially busy as a member of the organizers of the festival.

ASH: We were invited by Johanna for the dinner and we were shown some trophies as profits for the time that she dominated the scene in contests.

ASH: Dawn and Johanna decided to battle each other.

ASH: Johanna used her glameow and umbreon and Dawn used her piplup and pachirisu.

ASH: Johanna comes up with her strategies and defeated piplup and pachirisu quite easily.

SERENA: At least she lost to her mother and not to someone like Ursula.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Anyways, the Twin Leaf Town festival continued.

ASH: We were surprised when we found out that one of the up coming pokemon courses was to be hosted by none other than Professor Oak.

ASH: Trouble started brewing when someone actually tried to impersonate the real Professor Oak.

ASH: The faker was exposed and decided to make like an egg and beat it.

SERENA: That was the only good thing about the whole situation.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyways, while me and company were helping out with the festival, we encountered Barry again.

ASH: To test the progress of each other, me and Barry immediately started a battle.

ASH: However, Barry ran off into the forest and came across a wild Xatu.

ASH: Eventually, me, Dawn, and Barry found ourselves in trouble, facing predicaments that we each faced in the begining of our journeys.

ASH: Luckily, we were able to get our pokemon back to normal because they had magically became giant some how, due to Xatu.

SERENA: Sounds neat.

ASH: I wouldn't exactly call it neat, but it certainly was something that i'll never forget.

SERENA: What kind of pokemon is Xatu anyway?

ASH: All i know is that it's an extremely rare pokemon with special powers.

SERENA: I wish i had a Xatu.

ASH: They are mysterious.

ASH: Anyways, me, Dawn, Barry, and Brock entered the Twin Leaf festival's main event, a battle tournament.

ASH: The winner was offered a chance to battle Palmer of the Sinnoh battle frontier.

ASH: I won the tournament and battled against Palmer.

ASH: Palmer chosed his rhyperior and i chosed grotle.

ASH: Palmer came up with his strategies and almost defeated grotle.

ASH: Even after grotle boosted up by swallowing its own energy ball, rhyperior defeated it.

ASH: I was still awarded the trophy for winning the Twin Leaf Town battle tournament.

ASH: I forgot to mention that Palmer is Barry's father.

SERENA: Cool!

SERENA: Barry is the son of a big shot pokemon trainer.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Anyways, that night, there was lots of food, singing, and dancing.

ASH: The next day, we said good bye to Barry, Palmer, and Dawn's mother and left Twin Leaf Town.

ASH: While we were traveling, me and company met Lyra and Corey, who were from the region of Johto.

ASH: Dawn and Lyra had a battle in which Dawn won and got a pokemon egg.

ASH: After team rocket stole it, we got it back and it hatched into a cyndaquil.

SERENA: I have no idea what a cyndaquil is, but it sounds cute.

ASH: Cyndaquils are cute.

ASH: Anyways, Lyra and Corey joined our group and travel together.

ASH: However, while Dawn trained for the Lilypad Town pokemon contest, Lyra lost her marill, which seemed to have gone into a power plant.

ASH: Me and the others looked for marill immediately, but magnemite appeared out of no where and attacked us.

ASH: We eventually got marill back and that was that.

SERENA: That's good.

SERENA: What happened next?

ASH: After that adventure was over, me and Corey competed for a wild gible.

ASH: The gible liked to play tricks on everyone, so i, with my buizel and Corey with his totodile, tried to compete to capture the wild gible.

ASH: In the end, Corey caught gible as his first Sinnoh pokemon.

SERENA: That must've really given him a confidence boost.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Unfortunately, Dawn lost to Jesselina in the Lilypad Town contest, due to her mamoswine going nuts and not listening to her during the final round.

SERENA: That's to bad.

ASH: She took it quite well.

ASH: After the contest ended, me and Dawn had a tag team battle against Lyra and Corey.

ASH: It was tough, but me and Dawn won the battle.

ASH: Lyra and Corey left the group and went back to Johto.

ASH: Before that, Corey's father gave Brock a poke gear device as a thank you present for us showing Lyra and Corey a little bit of Sinnoh.

SERENA: You and the gang really showed Lyra and Corey a good time.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Eventually and unfortunately, the reappearance of team galactic happened again.

SERENA: Here we go again.

ASH: Their plan this time was intervened by Looker of the international police and team rocket.

SERENA: Who's Looker and why did team rocket help out?

ASH: Looker was someone me, Dawn, and Brock met before and he's a friend and ally of ours.

ASH: As for team rocket helping Looker out, i don't know why they did that.

ASH: Meowth of team rocket blasted off alone after Looker and team rocket got into a confrontation with a team galactic member.

ASH: Through meowth, we came to know about team galactic's theme and rescued Looker, James, and Jessie.

SERENA: That sounds ominous.

ASH: It was.

ASH: With the help of hunter J, team galactic captured the lake trio and me, Dawn, and Brock were warned as we were synchronized with them through their minds after they met us.

ASH: After we heard about the trio being captured, we went to the location with Champion Cynthia.

ASH: Elsewhere, team galactic used a red ruby crystal to control the minds of the lake trio pokemon.

ASH: As a last resort, the lake trio teleported the gang from Cynthia's place to team galactic's place.

ASH: With the lake guardians captured and the red chain completed, Cyrus prepared to begin his final plan and summoned dialga and palkia, so they could lay waste to the entire Sinnoh region.

SERENA: That's beyond evil.

ASH: I know.

ASH: Also, while Gary, Professor Rowan, and Cynthia tried to hold things together, it was up to me, Dawn, and Brock to try to free azelf, mesprit, and uxie as well as trying to calm down dialga and palkia.

ASH: When me, company, and the lake trio pokemon partially released dialga and palkia from Cyrus's control, he entered the new universe he forced them to create.

ASH: However, they destroyed it immediately.

ASH: Eventually, dialga and palkia were restored to their senses.

ASH: After that, azelf, mesprit, and uxie said good bye to me, Dawn, and Brock.

ASH: I have no doubt that me, Dawn, and Brock will meet them again some day.

SERENA: I think so too.

SERENA: What happened to team galactic?

ASH: The members were arrested and that was the end of team galactic.

SERENA: Thank goodness.

ASH: Shortly after that crisis with team galactic ended, me and company met a gentleman who claimed to be the master of air battles.

ASH: Hoping to improve my gliscor's flying, i decided to have a battle with him and his scizor and the results were more unfortunate than i expected.

ASH: Gliscor lost easily.

SERENA: That's disappointing.

ASH: However, after some over night training, i asked for a rematch against the air battle master and he gave me one.

SERENA: I'm guessing you managed to win your rematch.

ASH: Nah!

ASH: However, gliscor learned giga impact and he actually managed to put up a good fight the second time around.

ASH: The air battle master was impressed at how fast gliscor improved his flying capabilities.

ASH: He asked if he could train gliscor and i decided to leave it with the air battle master to train.

SERENA: That must've been hard for you.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: It was especially hard for gliscor, but i told him i would see him again soon.

ASH: Anyways, after helping a gible train and learn the attack draco meteor, gible followed me and my friends.

ASH: Barry showed up and tried to catch gible, but it chosed me as its trainer.

ASH: Barry then had a battle and won against me and my gible.

SERENA: A pokemon catching a trainer.

SERENA: Now that's rare.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Fast forward for a while and Dawn defeated Ursula again, so she could earn her 5th ribbon.

ASH: Which ment that she could qualify to enter into the grand festival for pokemon coordinators.

SERENA: That sounds interesting.

ASH: She finally was confident enough to face many other coordinators that were going to participate in the grand festival.

ASH: When the contest ended, me and company headed over to Sunny Shore City.

ASH: However, my 2 rivals, Paul and Barry showed up.

ASH: Barry asked Paul for a battle in which he refused.

ASH: Instead, me and Barry had a battle.

ASH: It was his empoleon against my monferno.

ASH: Monferno was struck by a hydro cannon which caused a rampage because its special ability blaze was activated.

ASH: It all happened right after team rocket snatched pikachu, piplup, and Barry's empoleon.

ASH: However, monferno finally controlled his rampage at the last minute and evolved into infernape.

SERENA: That was a stroke of good luck.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: After witnessing the whole thing and even helping me to bring pikachu, piplup, and Barry's empoleon to safety, Paul promised to battle me and infernape at the Sinnoh league.

SERENA: Hard to believe Paul could be that nice.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: You won't believe it, but on our way to Lake Valor, we met a princess that looked just like Dawn.

SERENA: Seriously!

ASH: Yep!

ASH: She and Dawn looked like twins.

ASH: They both had the same long beautiful blue hair.

SERENA: (sounding a little jealous) I have beautiful long hair too.

ASH: That's nice.

ASH: Anyways, Princess Salvia posed as Dawn for a day to enter into the Araroot contest and Dawn posed as Salvia in order to find out what it was like to be princess for a day.

ASH: Salvia won the Araroot pokemon contest and the ribbon.

SERENA: Good for her.

ASH: She decided to give her togekiss to Dawn.

SERENA: Why?

ASH: If i remember correctly, it was because she wanted Dawn to be able to give togekiss the thrill of competing in pokemon contests.

ASH: The princess couldn't give togekiss that because of her royal obligations.

SERENA: That was very nice of Salvia to do that.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Eventually, the time for the grand festival came.

ASH: The first round of a pokemon contest is known as the appeal round.

ASH: In the appeal round, pokemon coordinators try to show off their pokemon's flashy moves for the judges.

SERENA: That sounds interesting.

ASH: Yes and then the judges rate the appearance of the coordinator's pokemon's moves with a number system.

ASH: 10 points is the highest rating a judge can give a pokemon coordinator's performance.

ASH: Anyways, Dawn's rivals, Nando, Kenny, Ursula, Zoey, and Jessilina were there too.

ASH: Unfortunately, Kenny lost in the appeal round and so he left Lake Valor to train even harder with his pokemon.

SERENA: Losing in the first round must've really hurt his pride.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyways, the first contest battle began after that, between Ursula and Dawn.

ASH: It was a double battle performance meaning that both coordinators used 2 pokemon each.

ASH: Ursula used gabite and flareon.

ASH: When Ursula was on the way to win, Dawn used an ice chandelier combination, with only 7 seconds remaining.

ASH: Dawn's pokemon made the combination again and defeated both gabite and flareon.

SERENA: Wow!

SERENA: She managed to make a game changing move in the nick of time.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Dawn made it to the top 16.

ASH: At the end of the day, Zoey, Jessilina, and Nando also moved on to the top 16 in the grand festival.

ASH: Eventually, Dawn, Zoey, Jessilina, and Nando were in the top 4.

ASH: Zoey barely managed to defeat Nando and Dawn easily defeated Jessilina.

ASH: In the end of the battles, the 2 coordinators who were in the grand festival finals were Dawn and Zoey.

SERENA: Now it's getting real good.

SERENA: What was the final battle between Dawn and Zoey like?

ASH: In the final round of the grand festival, Dawn and Zoey had by far the best battle in the whole grand festival.

ASH: Zoey used her glameow and gallade and Dawn used piplup and togekiss.

ASH: During the battle, Zoey used Dawn's combinations to make her pokemon powerful and beautiful.

ASH: In the last seconds, they both made a combination move with their pokemon.

ASH: With a blinding light, the 2 combination attacks collided, which caused a gigantic explosion that sent a strong gust of wind.

ASH: Then they announced the winner who turned out to be Zoey, just by the smallest amount of points.

SERENA: Now that was a pretty good battle.

SERENA: Both Dawn and Zoey are beautifully talented pokemon coordinators.

ASH: Yes they are.

ASH: Dawn took her loss to Zoey very well.

SERENA: That's good.

ASH: After the grand festival ended, i battled against Volkner for my last gym badge.

ASH: I used torterra first, but it lost to Volkner's electivire.

ASH: Pikachu then defeated it.

ASH: After that, infernape defeated jolteon.

ASH: Luxray was Volkner's last pokemon and i sent out pikachu again, but he lost.

ASH: Infernape was my final hope, but it got hit one attack after another.

ASH: Infernape's blaze was then activated, but with my friendship and trust with infernape, it was able to control it.

SERENA: Really?

ASH: Yep!

ASH: With one after another powerful attacks, infernape kept weakening luxray.

ASH: With a final powerful flame wheel attack, infernape defeated luxray and i got my 8th and final gym badge.

ASH: I was then able to compete in the Sinnoh league.

SERENA: (impressed) It's incredible how you taught infernape how to control its blaze ability with your trust and friendship with him.

SERENA: (impressed) You really are incredible.

ASH: (blushing) You're too kind.

ASH: Eventually, it was time for the Sinnoh league and i had an old family blend.

ASH: I reserved pokemon i caught from all the other regions i had been in before coming to Sinnoh.

SERENA: Sounds like you had a big family reunion.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: My cyndaquil evolved into a quilava right before the Sinnoh league even started.

SERENA: That was a sign of good luck.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: My rivals Nando, Barry, Conway, and Paul were there.

ASH: The competition was fierce.

ASH: My opponent in the first round was Nando and i barely managed to defeat him.

SERENA: Nando is a very impressive person to be both a pokemon trainer and a pokemon coordinator.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Also, Barry, Conway, and Paul also made it through their first round battles.

ASH: Knowing that made me happy.

ASH: Moving on.

ASH: After i defeated my opponent in round 2, Barry, Conway, Paul, and a mysterious trainer with a darkrai, also moved on to round 3.

ASH: I discovered that my next opponent was Conway and that the up coming battle was between Paul and Barry.

SERENA: Uh oh.

SERENA: Getting an extremely powerful opponent like Paul in the 3rd round is not good.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Doing some research on our opponents, me, Barry and Paul each learned something about our opponents.

ASH: When the battle between Barry and Paul began, Paul sent out his magmortar, who easily defeated Barry's skarmory.

ASH: Next, Barry sent out empoleon and Paul recalled it because of magmortar suffering damage from empoleon's strong hydro cannon.

ASH: Then, after a close battle, Paul's ursaring defeated Barry's hitmonlee, even though hitmonlee had a powerful blaze kick.

ASH: Paul then decided to return his ursaring back into its poke ball because Barry's empoleon seemed to be to strong.

ASH: He then sent out his electivire that evolved from an electabuzz.

ASH: After a fierce battle between Paul's electivire and Barry's empoleon with its special ability torrent, which increased the strength of its water type attacks, Barry's empoleon still ended up being defeated.

ASH: That was that.

ASH: Paul won his 3 on 3 battle against Barry with out losing a single pokemon.

SERENA: That wasn't just a defeat Barry suffered.

SERENA: That was a very one sided disappointing defeat.

ASH: It was, but Barry had no regrets after the battle was over.

ASH: The interesting thing was that Paul told him face to face that it was a good battle.

SERENA: Really?

ASH: Oh yeah.

SERENA: I'm surprised that he didn't call Barry pathetic.

ASH: I was too.

ASH: Anyway, the next battle was between me and Conway.

ASH: I faced Conway with my noctowl, gible, and donphan.

ASH: I knocked out Conway's shuckle with my gible and his lickilicky with my noctowl.

ASH: However, Conway's dusknoir knocked out my noctowl and donphan fairly easily because of a move called trick room.

ASH: Gible was my last hope and both it and dusknoir had taken significant damage each.

ASH: It looked as though neither side had the clear advantage until gible bit through dusknoir's shadow punch.

ASH: I told gible to use draco meteor again and gible eventually defeated dusknoir.

ASH: I moved on and entered into the top 8 champions along with Paul and the mystery trainer with the darkrai.

SERENA: You succeeded in defeating 2 of your powerful rivals.

SERENA: That was very good.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: The mystery trainer's name was revealed as Tobias.

ASH: For the quarter finals, i discovered that i'd be battling Paul.

SERENA: (very curious) Now this is the part i've been waiting for.

ASH: My gliscor returned from its training with the air master.

SERENA: Did this happen before your big battle with Paul?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Eventually, the big 6 on 6 full battle between me and Paul began.

ASH: Me and Paul were about to start our full battle.

ASH: I used the same 6 pokemon team i used against Paul during our last full battle at Lake Acuity.

ASH: Paul chosed aggron first and i chosed pikachu first.

ASH: After a fierce battle, i recalled pikachu for infernape who defeated aggron with a fast Mach Punch.

ASH: Paul's next pokemon was gastrodon and i recalled infernape for staraptor.

ASH: Staraptor hit gastrodon with a quick attack.

ASH: Paul surprised everyone by making gastrodon do the counter shield with muddy water.

ASH: Staraptor tried to hit gastrodon with aerial ace, but gastrodon dodged it and hit staraptor with a body slam.

ASH: Gastrodon then used water pulse and shot it up in the air so that it could inflict serious damage on staraptor when it fell.

ASH: Luckily, i was on to Paul's plan, so i told staraptor to use close combat on the ground and it narrowly escaped being hit by gastrodon's water pulse.

SERENA: That was a clever evasive move you used.

ASH: Thanks!

ASH: Anyway, i recalled staraptor because it took damage from gastrodon's ice beam.

ASH: I sent out buizel and by taking gastrodon's ice beam, it was able to use ice aqua jet to gastrodon.

ASH: Gastrodon tried to hit buizel with a body slam, but buizel finished gastrodon with a powerful ice punch.

ASH: Paul's next pokemon was a big bad drapion.

ASH: It used pin missile on buizel, but buizel managed to block it with its counter shield.

ASH: Drapion then used cross poison, but buizel dodged it and dished out a sonic boom attack aimed at drapion's back.

ASH: However, drapion blocked it with its tail and drapion caught buizel with its tail.

ASH: Paul's counter attack had begun.

ASH: Drapion managed to easily defeat both buizel and staraptor.

SERENA: Oh boy.

SERENA: That tied the match up quickly.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyways, i sent out torterra and it did some damage to drapion, utilizing an energy ball, a leaf storm, and a rock climb.

ASH: However, drapion still managed to defeat torterra, even at a disadvantage.

SERENA: That just goes to show you how dangerous and powerful Paul's pokemon are.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Anyways, Paul recalled drapion and sent out ninjask.

ASH: He was now in the lead.

SERENA: I'm guessing gastrodon and ninjask were 2 new pokemon Paul had recently caught.

ASH: Yeah!

ASH: So i sent out gliscor.

ASH: After a tough battle, i recalled gliscor for infernape.

ASH: It used flare blitz on the under ground to get rid of toxic spikes.

ASH: Infernape finished ninjask with a powerful mach punch.

ASH: Paul's next pokemon was froslass and i recalled infernape for pikachu.

ASH: After a tough battle, pikachu defeated froslass with volt tackle.

ASH: Paul sent out drapion again and i recalled pikachu for gliscor.

ASH: Gliscor managed to strike down an X scissor attack, but drapion hit gliscor with pin missile multiple times.

ASH: Then, gliscor dodged cross poison and burnt drapion with fire fang, finally defeating drapion and leaving Paul only with electivire left.

SERENA: You managed to get ahead of Paul twice.

SERENA: That's so awesome.

ASH: I know.

ASH: However, Paul had a very clever idea on how to turn the tables around in his favor.

ASH: He told electivire to use thunder on the ground and chunks of earth fell down on gliscor, defeating him.

ASH: Then, due to electivire's immunity to electric type attacks, pikachu was eventually defeated in battle and was replaced by infernape.

SERENA: It's very fitting how electivire and infernape were the last pokemon you and Paul had left, due to how things ended between them in the last full battle.

SERENA: I guess i shouldn't be surprised he actually managed to tie the match between you and him twice.

ASH: I know what you mean.

ASH: Infernape and electivire used powerful clashes of thunder punch against mach punch and thunder against flame thrower.

ASH: Then, when electivire grabbed infernape's arm, he inflicted a very lethal thunder attack.

ASH: It eventually let infernape go and infernape fell to the ground.

ASH: Just as the referee was about to declare that infernape was unable to battle, infernape started to slowly get up.

ASH: Just then, something amazing happened.

SERENA: What?

ASH: Infernape used blaze because of all the damage it had taken and it was able to control blaze.

ASH: This was by far the best part of the battle.

SERENA: It sounds the best too.

SERENA: Please keep going!

ASH: Anyways, electivire charged with a powerful thunder punch at infernape and infernape charged with blaze at electivire.

ASH: Both pokemon charged at each other with one last awesome attack, causing a very big explosion.

ASH: When the smoke cleared, both electivire and infernape were still standing and after a stare down between both of them and me and Paul, electivire eventually collapsed.

ASH: I finally defeated Paul in an actually pokemon battle.

SERENA: Congratulations!

ASH: Thank you.

ASH: I moved ahead, on to the semi finals and entered into the top 4 champions of the Sinnoh league.

SERENA: I'm proud to hear that after all the defeats you've suffered from Paul, that you were able to finally beat him.

ASH: Me too.

ASH: Anyways, after the battle was over, Paul told me that he was going to see Brandon and ask for a rematch.

ASH: We wished each other good luck and we both agreed to eventually battle again one day.

ASH: The hatred between us finally turned to respect.

SERENA: I'm happy to hear that you and Paul put the bitterness behind the both of you.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: I discovered that my next match was against the strongest contender in the entire Sinnoh league, Tobias, who had easily won every battle to reach the semi finals using only his darkrai.

SERENA: It's paranormal for a pokemon to be that strong.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Darkrai was able to easily take out my heracross, torkoal, and gible using its dark void, ice beam, dream eater, and dark pulse attacks.

SERENA: What kind of attack is dream eater?

ASH: All i know is that it's a frightening attack.

ASH: Anyways, i brought out sceptile, who managed to defeat darkrai using a leaf blade attack.

ASH: This became the very first time for Tobias to have lost a single pokemon, up to the semi finals in the Sinnoh league.

ASH: Tobias surprised everyone with his second pokemon, latios.

ASH: Just like darkrai, latios is also a legendary pokemon.

SERENA: Unreal!

SERENA: Tobias is obviously no ordinary pokemon trainer.

SERENA: He must be a legendary pokemon trainer.

ASH: He probably is.

ASH: I didn't think about that until now.

ASH: That's the only good explanation that makes sense.

ASH: Anyways, latios defeated sceptile with a giga impact attack.

ASH: I then sent out my swellow.

ASH: After a brief battle, swellow was also defeated by latios's luster purge.

ASH: My last pokemon was pikachu.

SERENA: Oh no.

SERENA: In some ways it was like pikachu had to go up against 5 of Tobias' pokemon.

SERENA: I'm guessing it didn't end well.

ASH: It didn't.

ASH: After an amazing battle that ended with a big explosion, both latios and pikachu were declared unable to battle.

ASH: With all 6 of my pokemon eliminated and being able to defeat only 2 of Tobias's pokemon, i lost the battle.

SERENA: That's to bad.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: I still have no regrets about that battle, even though i lost.

ASH: Tobias then won the final battle with just darkrai and won the Sinnoh league.

SERENA: I'm not surprised.

SERENA: 2 of his pokemon are legendary.

ASH: Exactly!

ASH: After the Sinnoh league ended, me, Dawn, and Brock went on a ship that sailed straight to Twin Leaf Town.

ASH: We were about to go our separate ways, but this proved to be too much for piplup, so he ran away.

ASH: Fortunately, our pokemon found piplup.

ASH: Team rocket caught them, but we eventually saved them and blasted team rocket off into the sky.

ASH: Dawn comforted piplup and told him that they had to say good bye to me, Brock, pikachu, and the others.

SERENA: That must've been very difficult.

ASH: It was.

ASH: Anyways, before we said good bye to each other, we decided to watch a battle between Flint and Cynthia on TV at Dawn's house.

ASH: However, even though Flint is one of the elite 4, he still lost easily to Cynthia.

SERENA: It seems that no matter how strong someone is, there's always someone stronger out there.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: After watching the battle, i decided to continue my journey to become a pokemon master, Brock decided that he wanted to be a pokemon doctor, and Dawn decided to continue her journey to become a top pokemon coordinator.

SERENA: I thought Brock wanted to be a pokemon breeder.

ASH: At first he did, but a few pokemon on the ship that was headed for Twin Leaf Town got very sick because of poison attacks from tentacruel.

ASH: Seeing all those pokemon very sick had an affect on him.

ASH: That's why his dream changed from wanting to become a pokemon breeder to wanting to become a pokemon doctor.

ASH: Fortunately, all the pokemon got better.

SERENA: I'm happy to hear that.

ASH: Brock was very helpful on the ship during the health scare.

ASH: Anyways, at the pier, me and Dawn exchanged our final high five.

ASH: Me, Brock, and pikachu said good bye to Dawn and piplup.

ASH: As the ship departed, i yelled out to cheer Dawn up.

ASH: I told her that there was no need to worry.

SERENA: About what?

ASH: About if she were ever going to see us again.

ASH: "No need to worry." was and is Dawn's catch phrase.

SERENA: That's an easy going kind of catch phrase.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Me and Brock sailed off to Kanto and said good bye to each other, with him turning towards Pewter City and me and pikachu returning to Pallet Town.

ASH: We ran the rest of the path way home.

SERENA: You, Dawn, and Brock sure did have some exciting and dangerous adventures in the Sinnoh region.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Danger and excitement are to be expected when you choose the pokemon path.

ASH: I wouldn't be surprised if Brock is already a pokemon doctor and i wouldn't be surprised if Dawn has become stronger since i last saw her.

SERENA: I'm sure you miss the both of them a lot.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: I have a strong bond with both of them.

ASH: Brock was like an older brother to me and Dawn was my special friend and pokemon battle mate.

After hearing that last sentence, Serena gets a little nervous.

SERENA: (talking nervously) Um, Ash.

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (talking nervously) Do you love Dawn?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (panicking) WHAT!

ASH: Well yeah.

ASH: She may not travel around with me anymore, but i do still love her deeply.

SERENA: (talking nervously) I know you love her, but are you in love with her?

ASH: Oh, that's what you ment.

ASH: (shocked) HUH!

SERENA: (talking nervously) Ash, are you in love with her?

ASH: (acting, blushing, and yelling nervously) NO NO NO!

ASH: (acting and blushing nervously) I'll admit that i love her deeply, but i don't love her like a girlfriend.

SERENA: I'm glad to hear it.

SERENA: (talking nervously) I mean uh, i'm happy that you and Dawn have such a close bonded relationship.

SERENA: (talking nervously) That's what i meant.

Serena stops talking nervously.

ASH: Are you okay Serena?

SERENA: (talking fast) Of course i am.

SERENA: (talking fast) Why wouldn't i be?

ASH: Never mind.

SERENA: So what happened after you got back in Pallet Town?

ASH: The same thing that always happens after i return home after a long journey.

ASH: I started a new journey in a region called Unova.

**Ash is no stranger when it comes to action, adventure, danger, awkward moments, and setting off for new adventures. Serena seems to be giving him a few of those awkward moments again and again in this conversation of theirs. He's starting to think something is very wrong with her. Please keep reading and typing up your reviews for what you thought about this chapter and this whole story! Peace!**


	4. Ash and Iris' history

Ash still continues to tell Serena about his history as a pokemon trainer and his history with some of the most important females of his past. Serena finds it interesting, but at the same time, it makes her nervous.

ASH: Me, pikachu, my mother, and Professor Oak headed off for a trip to the Unova region.

ASH: When we got there, a strange black cloud formed over head and hit pikachu with a lightning bolt.

ASH: After meeting up with Professor Juniper, Unova's lead pokemon researcher, i encountered Trip, who was begining his pokemon league challenge with the grass type pokemon snivy.

ASH: In a practice match against Trip, i discovered that pikachu could no longer use electric type attacks, which Juniper attributed to the lightning bolt caused by the legendary pokemon, zekrom.

SERENA: Sounds interesting.

ASH: After the strange black cloud appeared again, pikachu's electric moves were restored.

ASH: Professor Juniper gave me a new pokedex and new poke balls so i could begin my new journey in Unova.

ASH: On my way, i came across a wild girl named Iris and her axew.

SERENA: (sounding a little frustrated) Not another girl.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: When team rocket appeared and tried to steal axew and pikachu, i tried to use my newly caught pidove against Jessie and her new woobat.

SERENA: Team rocket actually followed you all the way to Unova?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyways, though pidove was over powered, an oshawott, the one from Juniper's lab, appeared and saved axew and pikachu.

ASH: Me and Iris took our pokemon to a pokemon center, where Iris decided to travel with me and pikachu through Unova, as she knew her way around the region.

SERENA: (sounding a little frustrated) Not another female traveling companion.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Anyways, i eventually caught oshawott.

ASH: After that, i caught a fire type pokemon that was known as a tepig.

ASH: Me and Iris finally reached Striaton City, where we met pokemon Connoisseur Cilan at the market.

ASH: He saw that me and pikachu were very compatible and he invited me and Iris to the Striaton Gym, only for me to be surprised that it was a restaurant instead.

ASH: Chili and Cress introduced themselves as well and put on a show in the restaurant until i became angry that i was tricked.

ASH: However, the 3 brothers revealed themselves as the Striaton Gym leaders.

ASH: To their surprise, i decided to fight all 3 of them for the trio badge.

SERENA: (surprised) Wow!

ASH: My tepig fought Chili's pansear and won.

ASH: Pikachu went up against Cress's panpour, but easily lost.

ASH: In the final match, oshawott was sent in against Cilan's pansage.

ASH: Oshawott was able to hold his ground against the grass pokemon, until Cilan called out for pansage to use a solar beam attack.

ASH: Oshawott managed to deflect pansage's solar beam with his shell.

ASH: Oshawott was able to use his razor shell attack to defeat pansage.

ASH: I then earned the trio badge, with Iris unimpressed.

SERENA: I'd be impressed with seeing a win like that.

ASH: Good to know.

ASH: After Cilan began to ask about my battle methods, Iris' axew suddenly began feeling ill and was glowing pink.

ASH: A scientist named Fennel and her munna arrived.

ASH: Munna used its dream eater move to make axew wake up and then used its dream smoke to reveal its dreams.

SERENA: That sounds so cool.

ASH: It was.

ASH: We found Striaton City engulfed in dream smoke from a musharna that Fennel used in her research.

ASH: Me, Iris, and Cilan accompanied Fennel and Officer Jenny to the Dream Yard, finding that team rocket was causing all the trouble.

ASH: Pikachu destroyed the device they built, freeing musharna.

ASH: Back at the Striaton Gym, Cilan said his good byes to Chili and Cress, as he decided to join me on my journey through Unova, as had Iris, as we headed out to the Nacrene City gym.

ASH: I eventually caught a snivy.

SERENA: Was he or she easy to catch?

ASH: She played hard to catch.

SERENA: I'm glad to hear it.

ASH: Why?

SERENA: No reason.

ASH: Anyways, me, Iris, and Cilan met up with Trip once again on the way to Nacrene City, after we stoped by a battle club owned by Don George.

ASH: There, i challenged Trip to a 5 on 5 pokemon battle.

ASH: In fact, it was my first 5 on 5 pokemon battle.

ASH: Tepig and oshawott were easily defeated by Trip's new tranquill, but pikachu managed to finish the job off.

ASH: Trip's newly evolved servine emerged and was able to beat pikachu.

ASH: My female snivy took advantage of the gender differences and managed to use a combo of attract, vine whip, leaf storm, and leaf blade to finish off servine.

ASH: Frillish was then sent out and it beat my pidove easily and quickly.

ASH: I lost the battle due to the fact that snivy kept on attacking frillish with the same attacks over and over again when its ability cursed body disabled the attacks.

ASH: Also, with a combination of water pulse's confusing effect and hex, Trip won.

ASH: Trip then told me that snivy and pikachu were decent, but my other pokemon were a joke.

SERENA: What a jerk.

ASH: After that, Cilan caught a dwebble.

ASH: Me and company met up with Bianca, who had been sent by Professor Juniper to deliver a very dirty badge case to me.

ASH: Just as i put my trio badge in the case, it got stolen by the chinchilla pokemon known as minccino who was trying to clean it.

ASH: Bianca, who wanted to catch a minccino, sent out her pignite, but it was able to dodge the fire pig's attacks and used a hyper voice attack to knock it out cold.

ASH: I then sent out oshawott to battle the minccino, but minccino easily defeated oshawott with its double slap attack and escaped.

ASH: We decided to set up a trap with a dirty spoon and i tried to use my snivy to immobilize it with attract, but the minccino also knew attract and snivy was immobilized instead.

ASH: I sent out pikachu, who managed to weaken the minccino with an electric attack.

ASH: Bianca decided to take out a dirty poke ball, enticing minccino to clean it and it accidentally got captured.

SERENA: Well that was easy.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Anyways, with minccino under control, i got my badge case back.

ASH: After getting to a Pokemon Center to check up on the egg i received previously, Bianca challenged me to a battle.

ASH: Her pignite was defeated by pikachu in the battle, but Bianca said that she'd get stronger for our next battle.

ASH: Eventually, we reached Nacrene City and i challenged Lenora to a gym battle, but i lost.

SERENA: Did you request a rematch?

ASH: After some training i did and i won the basic badge.

SERENA: I thought so.

ASH: The egg i had gotten a while back hatched into a scraggy and then i had a total of 6 pokemon.

ASH: Even so, i eventually caught a sewaddle.

ASH: After that, on the way to Castelia City, me, Iris, and Cilan visited a mall where i found that another pokemon connoisseur was testing the bond between trainers and their pokemon.

ASH: I went to see the connoisseur who was a girl named Burgundy, who falsely stated that none of the pokemon i had caught in Unova were compatible with me.

ASH: When Cilan went to check up on me, Burgundy became angry and said that when she brought her oshawott to Cilan a while back, he claimed that she and the pokemon were not compatible.

ASH: She also showed that she won the trio badge from Cilan's brothers and challenged Cilan to a battle to fulfill its requirements.

ASH: She first sent out her dewott against Cilan's dwebble and dwebble won.

ASH: She then sent out a sawsbuck and Cilan then sent out his pansage.

ASH: In a fierce battle, pansage won against sawsbuck, but Burgundy proclaimed that one day she'd be better than Cilan and leaves.

SERENA: Burgundy sounds kind of feisty.

ASH: She was and is.

ASH: After that ended, me and company were harassed by a trio of ducklett.

ASH: The only good thing about the whole experience was that pikachu learned how to use electro ball.

SERENA: Those duckletts weren't so bad after all.

ASH: I wouldn't go that far.

ASH: Anyways, me, Iris, and Cilan finally arrived at the Sky Arrow Bridge, which was enshrouded in a thick fog.

ASH: Before crossing it, we came across a woman looking at photos of a ferry crossing in the Pokemon Center.

ASH: We prepared to cross the bridge when we were attacked by a gothitelle.

ASH: I sent out snivy, but she couldn't defeat the stronger pokemon and we were all sent back to the other side of the bridge.

ASH: There, we met a young girl named Sally, who invited us to take her father's ferry to the other side.

ASH: Cilan noticed the gothitelle on board and when the ferry docked again, we realized that we were back where we started and that the gothitelle was creating illusions to make us think that the ferry and the girl existed.

ASH: When Iris spotted the Gothitelle again, we chased it on to the bridge, where it attacked us.

ASH: I sent out snivy until the woman from before arrived, revealing that she was Sally and that the gothitelle that we had met helped out her father's ferry business until the bridge was opened.

ASH: Sally apologized for leaving gothitelle behind and as the fog disappated, gothitelle disappeared.

ASH: Me, Iris, and Cilan said good bye to Sally as we headed off towards Castellia City.

SERENA: That was one paranormal adventure.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: We eventually made it to Castellia City and i defeated Burgh in a gym battle and won the insect badge.

SERENA: You rock Ash.

ASH: Indeed i do.

ASH: Shortly after that, Iris caught an emolga that Bianca tried and wanted to catch.

SERENA: I'm guessing emolga didn't want to be Bianca's pokemon.

ASH: Correct!

ASH: While on the way to Nimbasa City, Iris notified me and Cilan that it was going to rain.

ASH: As me and Cilan insisted to her it was bright and sunny, the sky darkened and it began to rain and pour.

ASH: We rushed into the woods until we came across a large mansion.

ASH: I knocked on the door, only for it to open by itself.

SERENA: (freaking out) HAUNTED MANSION.

ASH: (nearly jumping up) BAH!

SERENA: Sorry for scaring you, but i kinda know where you're going with this adventure.

ASH: It's okay.

ASH: Anyways, we went in and a table flew at us and when we found the dining room and sat down, the chairs lifted into the air and threw us at a group of clothes walking around with no one wearing them.

ASH: Pikachu used a thunder bolt and then we saw that a litwick was causing the commotion as it had lost its friends.

ASH: We took the litwick through the mansion to find its friends when we came across a yamask, the litwick, and meowth.

ASH: However, the litwick we were helping soon turned on us.

ASH: We ended up running into team rocket and they looked extremely exhausted and drained as a lampent appeared with all of the litwicks, leading them to attack all of us into a vast ghostly abyss.

ASH: Team rocket nearly fell in, but me and the others saved them.

ASH: Together, pikachu, oshawott, Cilan's dwebble, Jessie's woobat, and James' yamask were able to defeat the evil ghost pokemon.

ASH: We left the mansion with the weather clear outside, only for it to rain again.

SERENA: That was a life threatening adventure you, Iris, and Cilan had.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Fast forward a few days or weeks later and while on our way to Nimbasa City, we came across a trainer named Georgia who claimed that she was a dragon buster and could defeat any dragon type pokémon.

ASH: Iris challenged her, saying that she was training to be a dragon master.

ASH: Georgia sent out her beartic and Iris sent out axew to fight it.

ASH: Axew was easily beaten and Iris sent out excadrill next, but he wouldn't listen to her.

ASH: Georgia taunted her before she left.

SERENA: That wasn't nice.

ASH: It certainly wasn't.

ASH: The next day, Georgia came across us again after she had eaten our breakfast and Iris challenged her to a rematch.

ASH: With excadrill's trust once again formed with Iris and his newly learned focus blast attack, he was an even match for Georgia's beartic, but both of them defeated each other at the same time, resulting in a tie.

ASH: Georgia, although upset, still claimed she was a dragon buster.

ASH: She told Iris they'd battle again some day and told Cilan to prepare a delicious meal for her when they would meet again.

ASH: Iris comforted excadrill in the draw and he hugged her and she hugged him back, telling him that she loved him.

ASH: In the end, Iris and excadrill were once again good friends.

SERENA: That's so romantic in a friendly kind of way.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: I ended up catching a roggenrola shortly after that.

ASH: Shortly after that happened, Cilan caught a basculin in a fishing contest.

SERENA: Did team rocket make an appearance?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: However, instead of blasting them off like i used to do, they started escaping almost every time thanks to their jet packs.

SERENA: They had gotten smarter.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: They also had went up a level when it came to being criminals.

ASH: Anyways, continuing to Nimbasa City, me and the gang encountered a zorua.

ASH: We were excited to see such a rare pokemon, only to find out that it belonged to a pokemon trainer named Luke.

ASH: He asked us to try to catch his zorua since she was not listening to him.

ASH: He introduced himself and said he liked making movies.

ASH: He explained what happened before zorua ran off, that they were filming a scene until zorua left.

ASH: We decided to help Luke out with his dilemma while team rocket tried to steal zorua.

ASH: When we found her, zorua was still angry at Luke and Cilan explained that zorua only wanted to play the role of Princess Uria in the movie.

ASH: Cilan offered to help in making the movie and claimed he was a film connoisseur.

ASH: We planned out the movie and the next morning, Luke explained the plot.

ASH: He began to film the movie while i was being a nervous wreck.

ASH: Luke and Cilan managed to calm me down.

ASH: Luke tried filming again while i was being much more relaxed.

ASH: We shot the next scene where axew got over whelmed by pikachu's electro ball.

ASH: We then shot the next scene with no cuts and during that time, team rocket interrupted by capturing zorua.

SERENA: Those movie wrecking thieves are so annoying.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Luke, still filming, recorded me and the gang battling team rocket.

ASH: After defeating team rocket, we finished the movie and showed it in the theater with every one applauding the movie after it ended.

ASH: Luke was told that the battle scenes showed had showed more passion and we all decided to enter the Nimbasa pokemon tournament.

SERENA: I love where this is going and i sure wish i could've been in the movie.

ASH: I know you would've been awesome.

SERENA: (blushing) That's so sweet of you to say.

ASH: Anyways, having arrived in Nimbasa City, i was excited to have my gym battle.

ASH: However, my excitement quickly faded when i found out that i was actually in Nimbasa Town.

ASH: I decided to enter the battle tournament held in Nimbasa Town.

ASH: Eventually, Bianca came charging at me and crashed into me once again.

ASH: She ended up accidentally pushing me in a body of water.

ASH: Luke began filming the pokemon tournament while Bianca disrupted him in the process.

ASH: As i decided what pokemon to use, Burgundy showed up as well as Stephan and Georgia.

ASH: Stephan was another friend we met earlier in our journey.

ASH: Later on, Trip made his appearance.

ASH: Tension immediately fills the air between rivals.

ASH: The tournament had finally begun with Don George spectating the battles.

ASH: Georgia won the first round and moved on to the next stage of the pokemon tournament.

ASH: Dino won the second round and moved on to the next stage of the pokemon tournament.

ASH: Antonio won the third round and moved on to the next stage of the pokemon tournament.

ASH: The fourth round was me against Burgundy.

ASH: Burgundy sent out stoutland while i sends out palpitoad.

ASH: I forgot to mention i caught palpitoad earlier in my journey.

ASH: Things started out with stoutland over powering palpitoad.

ASH: However, when stoutland used fire fang, palpitoad used mud shot and fired it in stoutland's mouth, letting down its guard while trying to get the mud out of its mouth.

SERENA: Yuck!

ASH: Palpitoad used a hydro pump attack to defeat stoutland.

ASH: I won the fourth round and moved on.

ASH: The fifth round was Trip against Cilan.

ASH: They had a hard long battle where Trip's gurdurr nearly smashed dwebble's rock, but in the end, Cilan won.

ASH: The sixth round was Stephan against Bianca in which Stephan won.

ASH: The seventh round was Luke against some guy named Scooter in which Luke won.

ASH: Finally, the eighth round was between Iris and Jimmy in which Iris won, finishing all 8 matches of the first round.

ASH: Trip prepared to leave as i confronted him.

ASH: He decided to leave, claiming he would not get stronger by watching me lose.

SERENA: What a meanie.

ASH: I agree.

ASH: Me, Iris, Cilan, and Stephan had dinner together.

ASH: The next morning, Iris and Georgia had a fight when zorua disguised as Georgia showed up.

ASH: Round 2 had begun and the matches had been sorted out.

ASH: The first match was me against Georgia.

ASH: I sent out snivy while she sent out pawniard.

ASH: I started off with snivy's leaf storm and Georgia countered with pawniard's lethal metal claw.

ASH: Snivy then used leaf storm again, but pawniard used its' lethal metal claw also again before snivy could attack.

ASH: Next, snivy used attract only to find out that pawniard was a female.

SERENA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

ASH: I'll ignore that.

ASH: Anyway, pawniard used an iron head attack while snivy countered with a vine whip attack.

ASH: Pawniard used a deadly guillotine attack, but snivy successfully dodged in time to avoid being knocked out.

ASH: The battle pursued with pawniard about to use another deadly guillotine attack on my fallen snivy.

ASH: Snivy managed to gain consciousness at the last second and dodged the attack once again and attacked using leaf blade.

ASH: Pawniard was now stuck in the ground.

ASH: Snivy attacked using leaf storm, defeating pawniard and giving me the win of the first match on the second day.

SERENA: That pawniard sounds sharp and dangerous.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Iris and Georgia had another verbal brawl.

ASH: The second match was Dino against Antonio in which Dino won.

ASH: The third match was Luke against Cilan.

ASH: Cilan sent out stunfisk while Luke sent out larvesta.

ASH: Larvesta defeated stunfisk with a flame thrower attack, giving Luke the win of the third match.

ASH: The final match of the second round was Iris against Stephan.

ASH: Stephan sent out his sawk and Iris sent out her emolga.

ASH: Emolga started off with attract while sawk countered with close combat.

ASH: Sawk then used bulk up while emolga used hidden power which was countered by double kick.

ASH: Emolga used hidden power again which made a direct hit.

ASH: Sawk used close combat, but got affected by emolga's special ability which was static.

ASH: Sawk then used double kick which emolga countered with attract, only for sawk to counter with close combat.

ASH: Emolga kept using attract while sawk kept using close combat until it was finally paralyzed by emolga's static.

ASH: Emolga finished with a volt switch attack, taking out sawk and giving Iris the win, thus concluding the second round.

ASH: The semi finals soon began with me going up against Dino and Iris facing off against Luke.

ASH: The first match was me versus Dino.

ASH: I sent out palpitoad and Dino sent out darumakka.

ASH: I won that match.

SERENA: No surprise there.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Iris' axew managed to learn outrage during the battle against Luke's golett.

ASH: Axew continued to attack golett, knocking it out and secured the win for Iris, but resulted in a confusing side effect for axew.

ASH: Later that day, Burgundy approached us and challenged Cilan to a connoisseur show down.

ASH: At first, he refused until he realized he was on camera and he accepted her challenge.

ASH: It was time for the final battle in the club battle tournament.

ASH: I was about to battle Iris while Cilan and Burgundy were about to have their show down.

ASH: I picked pikachu while Iris used excadrill.

ASH: Pikachu started off with a thunder bolt, but it didn't do much against excadrill.

ASH: Excadrill responded with a drill run attack and pikachu countered with quick attack.

ASH: Excadrill dodged, quickly grabbed pikachu's tail, threw him, and used a metal claw attack, and landed a direct hit.

ASH: Pikachu used an iron tail attack and excadrill used a metal claw attack again, but he missed and pikachu landed the iron tail on him.

ASH: Excadrill used a focus blast attack and pikachu countered with an electro ball.

ASH: The attacks collided and canceled each other out.

ASH: Excadrill used dig and threw pikachu in the air, but pikachu used this chance to launch an iron tail attack.

ASH: Excadrill used a drill run attack, but pikachu countered with an iron tail attack.

ASH: Excadrill used dig and pikachu dodged immediately, but got attacked by a focus blast attack which knocked him out and secured Iris the win of the club battles.

SERENA: Hard to believe pikachu lost.

ASH: I know.

ASH: Iris received the 7 feathers of swanna as a prize and concluded the club battles with an interview.

ASH: We all parted ways and me, Iris, and Cilan continued on to Nimbasa City.

ASH: Stopping on our way to Nimbasa City for a lunch break, axew and tepig discovered team rocket's meowth unconscious in some bushes.

ASH: We revived him back to health.

ASH: When he woke up, he explained that team rocket had fired him for botching an operation.

SERENA: This is getting interesting.

SERENA: Tell me more.

ASH: We decided to take meowth along with us for a while.

ASH: Continuing our journey, meowth sweet talked me, Iris, and Cilan, but pikachu was still suspicious of him.

ASH: Shortly after that, a scrafty snatched axew and ran off.

ASH: We chased after it, but scrafty threatened that if we got closer, bad things would happen to axew.

ASH: Meowth offered to negotiate with scrafty.

ASH: Scrafty wanted a pokemon to help battle him.

ASH: We decided to distract scrafty by using meowth and scraggy.

ASH: Meowth and scraggy distracted scrafty while me and snivy pulled axew out.

ASH: After it realized what had happened, pikachu issued a quick thunder bolt to knock it out.

ASH: Scrafty quickly woke up and revealed it wanted to battle and i used tepig.

ASH: Tepig knocked it out.

ASH: It cried and then explained that its' home was taken by another pokemon and that it asked for help from other pokemon, but they all refused, which is why it snatched axew.

ASH: It turned out that a mandibuzz had stolen its' lair.

ASH: I used scraggy and defeated mandibuzz, but then it started crying because it was kicked out of its' nest because it ate all of its friend's food.

ASH: When we went to the location, the other mandibuzzes attacked, but the first mandibuzz gave the other mandibuzzes some berries and all was forgiven.

ASH: The day ended with us continuing on our journey and Iris attempting to capture meowth.

SERENA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

SERENA: I love a happy ending.

ASH: Me too.

ASH: Anyway, as me and the gang continued our journey, we encountered a purrloin and meowth immediately fell for her.

SERENA: (blushing) Love at first sight.

ASH: Immediately following, a flock of tranquill immediately started using gust on all of us.

ASH: I called out oshawott and asked it to use water gun and i asked pikachu to use a thunder bolt attack.

ASH: After the flock disappeared, oshawott fell for purrloin as well and he and meowth soon had a fight on who should date her.

SERENA: (blushing) All's fair in love and war.

ASH: I guess.

ASH: Anyway, Iris wanted to catch purrloin and threw a poke ball to catch her when meowth jumped in the way and got pulled in instead.

ASH: He popped out of the ball and oshawott and meowth had another fight over purrloin.

ASH: Purrloin returned to the gang and asked for help because a friend was in trouble.

ASH: We decided to help, but Cilan refused, due to a past experience regarding a purrloin.

ASH: We climbed up a mountain to help purloin find its' friend.

ASH: Purrloin convinced me to give meowth my back pack full of fruits because the path way ahead became even narrower.

ASH: When we climbed down to where it pointed to, purrloin stole my back pack and took off.

SERENA: That cat was devilishly clever.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Cilan and some girl named Misha entered the cave to find us, except for purrloin, in trouble.

ASH: Misha tried to convince purrloin that she did not abandon it, but purrloin kept refusing to believe her story.

ASH: Me and every one else began sinking in the quick sand.

ASH: As Cilan and Misha tried to pull every one out, they fell in and began sinking as well.

ASH: When purrloin finally realized that Misha was telling the truth, it went out to help us.

ASH: Me and the gang called out our pokemon to help pull us out, but the rope holding us snapped.

ASH: Just in the nick of time, a flock of tranquill helped us out.

ASH: After every one was out safely, purrloin apologized to all of us.

ASH: Meowth and oshawott then asked purrloin out on a date, only to find out that purrloin was a guy.

SERENA: Oh my gosh.

ASH: Ha ha ha!

ASH: They were shocked too.

ASH: Continuing our journey, me and the gang stopped to have dinner.

ASH: While meowth went to collect fire wood, a very strange person proclaimed that he was going to capture him and pikachu and sent out a beeheyem to help collect fire wood.

ASH: It claimed it could grant any wish.

ASH: Cilan revealed that he wanted to cook something spicy for the night's meal, but he had the wrong berries.

ASH: Meowth asked beheeyem to get some figy berries and it granted the wish.

SERENA: That's so cool.

ASH: That night, we ate the overly spicy meal.

ASH: We discussed what to wish for next until Cilan decided to wish for an extravagant place to sleep.

ASH: Beheeyem told us to follow it and it made a luxurious palace appear.

SERENA: No way.

ASH: Way!

ASH: Anyway, we were led to our rooms where we immediately jumped on the bed and fell asleep.

ASH: During the night, Officer Jenny appeared and introduced herself as a specialist in psychic crimes.

ASH: She asked us if we were missing anything and we realized that all of our pokemon were missing.

ASH: We immediately chased after the man until a bunch of jail bars appeared in front of us.

ASH: The man from earlier came out and claimed that he was the grand dream thief known as Leon.

ASH: Officer Jenny explained that we were trapped inside beheeyem's dream and that every thing there was not real.

SERENA: Unreal!

ASH: Officer Jenny explained that all the mysterious events happened were a result of beheeyem and that we couldn't save the pokemon unless we escaped from the dream.

ASH: She explained that in order to leave the dream, we needed to realize that it was a dream and that we had to attack an emergency exit sign to get out.

ASH: Iris spotted it in a painting and Officer Jenny told her duosion to use psywave on it, freeing us all.

ASH: We saw Leon and we began to battle, but seemed to be unable to hurt beheeyem.

ASH: When we saw that there were 2 moons in the sky, we realized that we were still in the dream.

ASH: We woke up our pokemon, but meowth would not wake up so i had pikachu use a thunder bolt on him.

SERENA: Must you always be so extreme?

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Anyway, we tried to use the emergency exit to get out, but a UFO appeared and Leon appeared to be an alien.

ASH: We then saw there were now 3 moons and realized meowth went back to sleep before we got to the exit.

ASH: Pikachu used a thunder bolt again to wake him up and we tried to leave the dream again.

ASH: Leon and beheeyem became super sized and started chasing all of us.

ASH: We realized meowth was asleep yet again and lying on top of one of the hundreds of moons in the sky.

SERENA: Meowth sure is lazy.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Axew, Duosion, and pikachu tried to wake him up again by using a thunder bolt, dragon rage, and psywave, but accidentally knocked him out.

ASH: They stuffed a bunch of figy berries into his mouth and woke him up yet again.

ASH: We used the emergency exit to get out.

ASH: We then saw that there was only 1 moon and that we were out of the dream.

ASH: Leon tried to put us to sleep again, but pikachu used an electro ball to knock beheeyem out.

ASH: He took off, but was stopped by meowth.

ASH: Leon was locked up and the poke balls were returned safely.

SERENA: Justice prevailed yet again.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: After that adventure, we came across a sick cubchoo and realized how badly damaged the forest was.

ASH: We came across a beartic that started to attack us.

ASH: We found many of them that were angry.

ASH: Meowth decided to play negotiator and the beartic used their icy wind attacks on him.

SERENA: That was cold.

ASH: In more ways than one.

ASH: A mienfoo appeared and knocked them out.

ASH: A forest ranger named Cliff introduced himself to us.

ASH: He was quite amazed at meowth for his abilities to talk.

ASH: The cubchoo explained to meowth exactly what happened before we found it and Cliff told us that there were 2 tribes of beartic living on the mountain.

ASH: We set out to find the beartic that the cubchoo belonged to until we were attacked by the beartic.

ASH: We quickly distracted the beartic and ran.

ASH: Meowth decided to be a negotiator and dodged the first icy wind attack, but got hit by the second one.

ASH: We ran away, but fell off of a cliff and got separated from the pokemon.

ASH: We walked through a completely destroyed forest where one of the beartic groups lived.

ASH: We walked through another destroyed forest until we came across a second beartic group.

ASH: Suddenly, the 2 beartic groups met and they began to fight each other, but their fighting caused boulders to roll down the mountain at us.

ASH: Most of them were destroyed by pikachu and the others and the beartic all used sheer cold to freeze the remaining boulder in place.

ASH: The 2 beartic groups now got along with each other.

ASH: After saying bye to Cliff, we continued our journey to Nimbasa City.

SERENA: Meowth needs to work on his negotiating skills.

ASH: Yeah!

ASH: We finally arrived in Nimbasa City after a long and hard travel period.

ASH: We all agreed to go to the Pokemon Center, but i wanted a gym battle until my stomach growled.

SERENA: Some things never change.

ASH: Right!

ASH: We headed to the sub way station.

ASH: When we went into the station, Cilan looked at one of the model cars on display and began an overly long explanation of the car.

ASH: Meowth dragged him away and we walked to the sub way tracks.

ASH: Suddenly, the emergency brakes kicked in on the train as a ghost train passed by the train we were in.

SERENA: Sounds spooky.

ASH: Suddenly, the sub way bosses, Ingo and Emmet appeared on the train and got it going again.

ASH: The ride to Nimbasa Central resumed.

ASH: We headed to the Pokemon Center where axew, meowth, and pikachu as well as my other pokemon went to relax.

ASH: I decided to call Professor Oak.

ASH: Suddenly, the communication lines were cut off and the draw bridge to Drift Veil City was raised and then shorted out.

ASH: Suddenly, everyone in Nimbasa City was confused and Cilan suggested that someone was trying to steal pokemon.

ASH: Me, Joy, Iris, and Cilan headed to the security vault to find that all the poke balls were missing, including axew and pikachu as well as meowth.

ASH: When me, Iris, and Cilan found meowth, we realized that he had betrayed us and was never fired from team rocket in the first place.

SERENA: That sly awful pokemon.

ASH: I know.

ASH: Team rocket forced us out of the way and drove away with the train loaded with the pokemon.

ASH: We regrouped with the sub way bosses and they headed to the mail carriage train.

ASH: We drove to the point where team rocket had to pass through and catch up with our train.

ASH: When we closed in on it, i jumped on it and it began to deflate and explode, derailing the carriage train.

SERENA: Ash Ketchum, do you have a death wish?

ASH: Nah!

SERENA: Jumping on to a moving train is beyond stupid and dangerous.

ASH: No it's not.

ASH: It's brave.

SERENA: I give up.

ASH: Anyway, we realized that it was a fake train meant to distract us.

ASH: When the sub way bosses regained control of the sensors, they noticed a train heading for the junction and realized it was team rocket as we went right past them.

ASH: They claimed they could track their location at all times, but as soon as team rocket passed the point, the trains showing up in the system began to multiply.

SERENA: How is that possible.

ASH: With team rocket having hacked into the sub way system's computers, the sub way bosses couldn't help that much.

ASH: I suggested inspecting them one by one until we found the right one.

ASH: Cilan suggested that team rocket was planning to meet outside of the sub way and that they were on their way to the Anville Town rail yard.

ASH: The sub way bosses rendezvous with us and planned to drive out of the under ground sub way station to catch up to team rocket, just as the pokemon had finally cut a hole through the door of the train.

ASH: Pikachu realized that meowth had been lying all along and got infuriated.

ASH: The pokemon worked together to destroy the coupling of the train to separate themselves from team rocket, forcing them to chase after the train.

ASH: When me and the others arrived, we saw that someone was preparing to lift the train car holding the pokemon with a helicopter and take it away.

ASH: I decided to go over to the train car and help them out.

ASH: Using a chandelure's psycic power, i was transported over to the train car.

ASH: We outraced team rocket until we managed to destroy the clamps on the helicopter.

ASH: James and Jessie took over the capturing process and began to speed up.

ASH: We, again, used the pokemon to speed up the trailer when tepig used flame thrower.

ASH: The train gets attacked and the path started to short circuit.

ASH: Pikachu, still infuriated at meowth for lying, watched team rocket fly away on their jet packs and was about to pursue them, mainly meowth, but, i managed to calm him down and told him to let it go for now, as we safely arrived in Anville Town's rail yard.

SERENA: I hate to admit it, but that was a very well thought out villainous plot team rocket came up with.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: The sub way bosses informed people that the poké balls would be safely returned to them.

ASH: I became excited for my gym battle and couldn't wait to return to Nimbasa City.

ASH: We finally got there and we watched Bianca have a gym battle with a super model gym leader named Elesa, but she lost.

SERENA: That was unfortunate for her.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: It was finally my turn for a gym battle.

ASH: As Iris and Cilan tried to get me, i locked myself up in my room, trying to think of a strategy to over come Elesa's pokemon.

ASH: I believed that pikachu shouldn't participate in the gym battle, as he was and is an electric type pokemon and wouldn't be effective against Elesa's pokemon.

ASH: We arrived at the gym and i handed pikachu over to Cilan before i began my match against Elesa.

ASH: She called out zebstrika and i called out palpitoad.

ASH: Palpitoad used a mud shot attack while zebstrika used a flame charge attack.

ASH: It used a flame charge attack once again to increase its speed.

ASH: Palpitoad used a hydro pump attack, but it missed.

ASH: Zebstrika used double kick attacks and landed a direct hit.

ASH: Palpitoad used super sonic followed by a mud shot attack and then by using a hydro pump attack, taking out zebstrika.

ASH: Palpitoad was clearly worn out when Elesa sent out her emolga.

ASH: Palpitoad used super sonic, but it missed due to emolga's acrobatic skills.

ASH: Emolga used attract on palpitoad and made him fall in love with her.

SERENA: (blushing) How romantic.

ASH: I didn't think it was very romantic.

ASH: That stupid move caused me a lot of trouble in that gym battle.

ASH: Anyway, emolga finished off palpitoad with an aerial ace attack.

ASH: I, however, had forgotten to take all of my pokemon with me, so i ran off the field to go get snivy.

ASH: Snivy and emolga both used attract on each other, but it didn't work as they were and are both females.

ASH: That was a fact i had forgotten about my own snivy.

SERENA: I'm not at all surprised to hear that.

SERENA: (sounding a little mad) After all, you didn't even remember me when we met each other again here in Kalos.

ASH: Oh well.

ASH: What can you do?

SERENA: (sounding very mad) You can start by not being so oblivious about and around the females in your life.

ASH: Geez!

ASH: Calm down.

SERENA: (sounding a little mad) Just keep telling your story, Ketchum!

ASH: Anyway, i revealed to be further off my game when i forgot emolga was also a flying type pokemon.

ASH: After a long fight, emolga knocked out snivy, all the while pikachu had been getting angry over being left out.

ASH: I didn't know how to proceed when pikachu used a thunder bolt attack on me and yelled at me.

ASH: Finally, i realized that i had been going at it the wrong way and realized that the bond with my pokemon was much more important than my strategy.

ASH: I chosed pikachu for my final pokemon and pikachu used a quick attack to knock out emolga.

ASH: Elesa then called out her strongest pokemon, tynamo.

ASH: It started off using tackle attack which slammed pikachu into a wall, followed up by another tackle attack that slammed pikachu into the floor.

ASH: It repeated tackle attacks against pikachu and i realized that tynamo was trying to trap pikachu in the battle ground terrain.

ASH: I then told pikachu to use a series of thunder bolt attacks all over the field and with an iron tail attack, he took out tynamo and won the battle.

ASH: Elesa awarded me with the bolt badge.

SERENA: That was an extreme win.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: After the gym match, Cilan decided that he wanted to go back to the sub way so he could challenge the sub way bosses, Ingo and Emmet, in a match by collecting enough stamps.

ASH: Me and Iris decided that we wanted to see the rest of Nimbasa City, so we took another sub way train to explore.

ASH: We went to see the sports arena, we had a tennis match, and then headed off to see a pokemon musical before spending time at the amusement park.

ASH: Iris was nice enough to buy an ice cream cone for me.

ASH: We had some good ice cream together.

SERENA: (sounding a little jealous) Sounds like you 2 had a lot of fun together.

ASH: We did.

SERENA: (sounding a little jealous) Sounds like you 2 were on a date.

ASH: (blushing) We weren't.

SERENA: (sounding a little jealous) Than why are you blushing?

ASH: (blushing) You're making me nervous with all these weird questions.

SERENA: Whatever!

ASH: Anyway, i spotted an axew with a bow on her tail and we took her with us upon realizing that it had lost its trainer.

ASH: Me and Iris went back to the trains, when the axew ran off to someone who she thought was her trainer, but it was another trainer whose swadloon was not happy to see axew.

ASH: In the fray, Iris's emolga used a discharge attack on every one in the train.

ASH: A sub way guard reprimanded us after the incident.

ASH: Iris drew a ferris wheel on a stamp sheet, indicating that we would be waiting at the amusement park.

ASH: Eventually, me and Iris met up with Cilan and axew's trainer Erina.

ASH: Cilan revealed they went to see Ingo and Emmet to find me and Iris and just as Cilan prepared to hand in his card for his battle sub way challenge, he realized he was missing a stamp.

ASH: However, Erina had the missing stamp and the sub way bosses allowed it to count for me and Cilan to challenge them in a 2 on 2 match.

ASH: I sent out tepig and Cilan sent out pansage.

ASH: Ingo sent out chandelure and Emmet sent out eelectross.

ASH: While tepig and pansage put up a good fight, chandelure and eelectross knocked them out.

ASH: The sub way bosses wished me and the others well on our trip to Drift Veil City, before we enjoyed our last day in Nimbasa City, watching the sun set in the ferris wheel with Erina.

SERENA: That was an amazing day you had.

ASH: It sure was.

ASH: As me, Iris, and Cilan left Nimbasa City, we passed through a street festival and met back up with Trip.

ASH: I showed him that i had won my fourth gym badge, but Trip showed that he had 5 badges.

ASH: We then spotted the Unova league's Champion Alder bothering an Officer Jenny and hitting on her.

SERENA: That's funny.

ASH: After introductions, i challenged Alder to a match.

ASH: It was his bouffalant versus pikachu.

ASH: Bouffalant's strong defenses prevented pikachu from winning, but a badly targeted afro break from bouffalant hit Alder, ending the match abruptly.

ASH: The event caused Trip to lose faith in his idol and he left.

ASH: At a Pokemon Center, Alder was hitting on Nurse Joy before he had lunch with me and company.

SERENA: That's funny again.

ASH: Our lunch was interrupted when Nurse Joy told Alder that a gigalith was rampaging in the festival.

ASH: After tempting it with an apple and failing, Alder managed to stop the rampaging pokemon with his bare hands, flipping it over.

SERENA: Incredible!

SERENA: He must have the strength of a machine.

ASH: Possibly and probably.

ASH: This allowed Alder to spot a nail stuck in gigalith's foot and he removed it, cheering up the gigalith.

ASH: Officer Jenny went to scold Alder for his reckless actions when a light pole nearly fell on her, but the gigalith saved her.

ASH: Alder took me and company to the Drift Veil draw bridge to see us off on the rest of our journey.

ASH: Fast forward a few days or weeks later, me and the gang headed to Drift Veil gym to challenge Clay, but he refused claiming he had no revival herbs and he would not battle me unless he received more.

ASH: We went to the market where we asked Charles for assistance.

ASH: We found a revival herb, but couldn't have it because it was to be delivered to the Pokemon Center, so we took a trip to Milos Island to get some.

ASH: We ran into a boy named Lewis who harvested the herbs.

ASH: He said he couldn't give us any because all the herbs were withering away and the grass pokemon were getting sick.

ASH: Lewis told a tale about why revival herbs only grow on Milos Island.

ASH: A gothorita belonging to Lewis came in with a withered revival herb.

ASH: It quickly grew fond of axew.

ASH: The next morning, Lewis was performing a rain making ritual and some rain clouds appeared, but quickly summoned tornadus.

ASH: It immediately attacked us by starting off with a hurricane attack and then an air slash attack, knocking down several trees.

SERENA: Tornadus is a very frightening pokemon if it can cause hurricanes.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: We attempted to fight back, but it responded with a hidden power attack.

ASH: We fled to check on the monument of tornadus only to find that the wedge which was needed to fulfill its role, had been destroyed.

ASH: We immediately checked thundurus' monument only to find the same result.

ASH: Cilan and pansage were distracting tornadus.

ASH: Shortly after, the monument got struck with lightning and thundurus appeared and immediately used a discharge attack.

ASH: Pansage was knocked out by thundurus and tornadus and they soon battled each other, sending air slash and discharge attacks at each other.

ASH: Tornadus used a hidden power attack while thundurus used a spark attack.

ASH: Snivy was sent out to use a leaf storm attack, but with no effect.

ASH: Up next was excadrill who used a powerful focus blast attack, but it got over powered by tornadus's hidden power attack.

ASH: Axew then used a dragon rage attack which landed a hit, but had no effect.

ASH: Thundurus retaliated with a discharge attack, but Cilan's stunfisk retaliated with a mud shot attack.

ASH: Snivy used a leaf storm attack and excadrill used a drill run attack, but both were knocked out cold by the 2 legendary pokemon.

ASH: Pikachu and stunfisk used thunder bolt attacks with no luck and were both knocked out cold.

ASH: Once again, the 2 legendary pokemon started battling each other again.

ASH: We then decided to try to summon landorus and Iris got dressed for the part.

SERENA: What did she wear?

ASH: Shrine maiden clothes.

ASH: The island was getting destroyed.

ASH: Iris began to pray to summon landorus at its designated monument.

ASH: The monument responded.

ASH: We then asked it to stop the fight between thundurus and tornadus.

ASH: Tornadus went up to chase them out of the clouds.

ASH: The 2 began to fight landorus with one attack after the other.

ASH: Landorus retaliated with extra sensory attack and sent them flying into a mountain.

ASH: Landorus retaliated again with a hyper beam attack.

ASH: A large amount just broke off from the mountain, caused by tornadus severely injuring both axew and gothorita.

ASH: We headed back to the lodge where we were given one of the last revival herbs.

ASH: Axew and gothorita were both healed immediately.

ASH: We returned to the fight scene and discovered that they were fighting in the clouds.

ASH: We tried to help landorus as much as possible.

ASH: Landorus used a hyper beam attack and weakened them both.

SERENA: That sounds like some kick butt strength.

ASH: It was.

ASH: It then tried to convince them to stop.

ASH: Suddenly, laser beams came from the sky, trapping the 3 legendary pokemon and team rocket made their appearance.

SERENA: Of course.

ASH: We discovered that they destroyed the wedges to the monuments to summon 2 of the 3 legendary pokemon.

ASH: We were infuriated with team rocket.

ASH: We began to attack the laser boxes using various attacks from different pokemon, but with no effects.

ASH: Suddenly, a helicopter appeared to collect the pokemon in the laser boxes.

ASH: We tried to attack the cages again, but with no luck.

ASH: We decided to attack the helicopter cargo that was powering the cages and successfully damaged it.

ASH: Team rocket released the cargo and made an emergency retreat from the island.

ASH: The rubble crashed on to landorus and injured it.

ASH: Thundurus and tornadus relentlessly attacked it while it was weakened.

SERENA: Both of them sound like cowards.

ASH: True!

ASH: Lewis quickly ran to his cabin to get another herb and gave it to landorus.

ASH: Thundurus and tornadus tried to attack before landorus received the herb, but failed.

ASH: Landorus had recovered.

ASH: The 2 tried to attack it up close, but landorus used an extra sensory attack to repel them.

ASH: It finished the job with a double hyper beams which completely drained both of them.

ASH: Landorus approached up close to convey its' feelings to us.

ASH: The fight between the 3 was over.

ASH: The 3 gathered together and regrew the revival herbs.

ASH: The forest and the island had completely recovered.

ASH: The 3 legendary pokemon departed from Milos Island as well as me and company where we returned to Drift Veil City to give Clay his revival herbs.

SERENA: Now that was an adventure for the history books.

ASH: Oh yeah.

ASH: Anyway, i finally had a chance to battle the king of the mines.

ASH: Me and Clay duked it out and i had won the quake badge, making it badge 5 of 8.

ASH: The gang were at the Pokemon Center to heal the pokemon and prepared to set off to Mistralton City.

ASH: Shortly after saving some galvantula and joltik from team rocket, Bianca and Professor Juniper proceeded to trade their shelmet and karrablast in a procedure they called trade evolution.

SERENA: Tell me more about this fascinating procedure.

ASH: Bianca wanted to trade immediately, however Professor Juniper wanted to put the 2 in battle first.

ASH: Bianca and Professor Juniper began their battle with Cilan as the referee.

ASH: Bianca called out shelmet and Professor Juniper called out karrablast.

ASH: Karrablast started out with a peck attack and shelmet used protect.

ASH: Suddenly, their computers crashed and froze up along with the link trade system as well.

ASH: Bianca freaked out when they found out.

ASH: Something strange was happening in a cave, so we went to investigate.

ASH: We discovered a bunch of klinks and proceeded further to the source of the mystery.

ASH: We found a klinklang that couldn't seem to rotate.

ASH: After we managed to calm it down, we discovered a pen stuck in klinklang's gears.

ASH: Professor Juniper contemplated about who the pen belonged to.

ASH: Bianca and the professor traded their pokemon upon returning.

ASH: Professor Juniper called out shelmet which immediately evolved into an accelgor.

ASH: Bianca called out karrablast which immediately evolved into an excavalier.

ASH: However, it went on an immediate rampage and started to attack Bianca.

SERENA: That's scary.

ASH: Yes it was.

ASH: Bianca returned it to its poke ball.

ASH: We proceeded to start a tag battle with Bianca and Professor Juniper on one side and me and Cilan on the other side.

ASH: I called out boldore and Cilan called out crustle.

ASH: Bianca and Professor Juniper called out the same pokemon from before.

ASH: Boldore started with a rock smash attack that hit excavalier.

ASH: Me and Cilan both focused our attacks on excavalier.

ASH: Accelgor protected it, but took a lot of damage.

ASH: Boldore used a flash cannon attack and crustle used a rock slide attack.

ASH: Excavalier protected accelgor and started to listen to Bianca.

ASH: They continued and used double hyper beams that took out boldore.

ASH: Crustle used a shell smash attack, followed by 2 rock wrecker attacks and that took out both excavalier and accelgor, leaving the win to me and Cilan.

SERENA: More like leaving the win to Cilan, mister future pokemon master.

ASH: I'm going to pretend like i didn't hear that.

ASH: Bianca and excavalier finally got along and the 2 departed from us and the professor.

ASH: Eventually, me, Iris, and Cilan made it to Mistralton City, but when we got to the gym, we discovered that the gym leader had set up a simulation system called "Air battles." to determine the winner.

SERENA: What are air battles exactly?

ASH: They were battle out comes Skyla would have in her head and she would determine if someone deserved a badge if a trainer's pokemon had type advantages over her own.

ASH: However, if a trainer's pokemon had type disadvantages over her pokemon, than they wouldn't get a badge.

ASH: She would declare trainers winners or losers with out even actually battling them.

SERENA: That's an awful battling style.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Furious, Cilan challenged Skyla to a match, knowing that a simulation is no substitute for a true gym battle.

ASH: Unfortunately, even though it was an actual battle, Cilan lost.

ASH: However, i then challenged Skyla to an actual gym battle and thankfully, her grandfather persuaded her to agree to it.

ASH: We ended up having an amazing aerial battle at the very end of the gym battle and i won the jet badge.

ASH: Skyla decided to stop having air battles after that and start having actual gym battles.

SERENA: Now that's more like it.

SERENA: What happened after that?

ASH: At Ambiga Town, the local Don George held a tournament called the "Clubsplosion!" to show case fighting type pokemon.

ASH: Me, Trip, Bianca, Georgia, and Stephan all entered the tournament.

ASH: I used my scraggy.

ASH: Mine and scraggy's first opponents were some guy named Angus and his simisage.

ASH: We won.

SERENA: I'd expect nothing less of you in the first round of a pokemon tournament.

ASH: I'm flattered.

ASH: The clubsplosion tournament continued.

ASH: Iris and excadrill faced off against Burgundy and her dewott.

ASH: Iris defeated Burgundy.

ASH: Bianca and her emboar faced off against Trip and his conkeldurr.

ASH: Bianca defeated Trip.

ASH: Dragon buster Georgia and her bisharp faced off against new comer Gale and her druddigon.

ASH: Gale defeated Georgia.

ASH: As the second round got under way, the remaining contestants battled for the chance to enter the top 4 in the clubsplosion semi finals.

ASH: The clubsplosion semi finals raged on.

ASH: Bianca and her emboar battled against Stephan and his Sawk.

ASH: Stephan defeated Bianca.

ASH: Me and my scraggy battled against Montgomery and his throh.

ASH: Montgomery defeated me.

ASH: In the finals, Stephan and his sawk faced off against Montgomery and his throh.

ASH: Stephan won.

SERENA: Was it disappointing for you to lose?

ASH: Sort of, but i'm glad Stephan won.

ASH: Anyway, we eventually stopped at Abtilbe Town's battle club and i met my tepig's former trainer who went by the name Shamus.

ASH: He abandoned tepig because he felt he was too weak.

SERENA: That's just cruel.

ASH: I was angry.

ASH: I challenged Shamus to a double battle with snivy and tepig going up against Shamus' emboar and heatmor.

ASH: Not only did i win, but tepig evolved into a pignite and he spat fire into Shamus' face after the battle ended.

SERENA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

SERENA: He got burnt in more ways than one.

ASH: Ha ha ha!

ASH: Eventually, i challenged Brycen for the icicle badge, putting my scraggy, krokorok, and pignite up against his vanillish, cryogonal, and beartic.

ASH: I won that gym battle.

SERENA: I knew you could do it.

ASH: Upon arriving in port, me, Iris, and Cilan met up with Luke and his zorua again, in a city once used as a set for a popular movie.

ASH: Luke was here to make a film for a contest and we all decided to help him out.

ASH: He won first place in that contest.

SERENA: No surprises there.

ASH: On our way to the Virbank City gym, we were surprised to come across several trainers who were still reeling from their defeat at the hands of the gym leader, Roxie, who specializes in poison type pokemon.

SERENA: She sounds like a rare one.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: With Cilan's help, i discovered the gym in an under ground music club, where Roxie was the leader of the punk rock trio known as Koffing and the Toxics.

SERENA: Woah!

SERENA: She's the leader of 2 occupations.

SERENA: That's impressive.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Roxie accepted my challenge, on one condition.

ASH: She wanted me to use all 6 of my pokemon against her team of only 3.

SERENA: (shocked) What?

SERENA: (shocked) No way.

SERENA: (shocked) Why on earth would she do that?

ASH: I'll tell ya.

ASH: I was a little unwilling to have a gym battle in which i would have a huge unfair advantage, but she assured me that i would appreciate the numbers advantage.

ASH: I agreed and the unusual battle began, in front of a crowd of rowdy fans and with plenty of musical accompaniment.

ASH: First up, it was Roxie's koffing versus my boldore.

ASH: However, as the losing trainers warned, Roxie proved to be extremely powerful and resourceful and boldore was easily and quickly eliminated.

ASH: I sent out my unfezant next, hoping a flying type would be able to keep up with koffing's incredible speed, but it wasn't enough and unfezant was knocked out.

ASH: It was now 3 of her pokemon against 4 of mine.

ASH: At that moment, i realized why Roxie's rules were the way they were.

SERENA: Why?

ASH: The reason is that if she were to have it to where she would fight actual fair gym battles, where she would have 6 pokemon and her opponent would have 6 pokemon, it would be to easy for her to win.

ASH: She gives her opponents a very big number advantage so that she can't have easy wins and so she can push herself to her limits.

ASH: She's that strong.

SERENA: (shocked and impressed) Unreal!

SERENA: (shocked and impressed) Her skills are immense.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: My third pokemon was leavanny, much to everyone's surprise, as a grass type pokemon has a disadvantage against poison type pokemon.

ASH: However, i had a strategy this time and i told leavanny to wrap koffing up with a string shot and reel it in for a close range energy ball blast.

ASH: Koffing was finally eliminated and Roxie was one pokemon down.

ASH: Next, she sent out her scolipede and it used a toxic attack to send leavanny reeling.

ASH: It soon became clear that her scolipede was just as powerful as her koffing, as it made short work of my leavanny.

ASH: I had 3 pokemon left to Roxie's 2, but the numbers advantage didn't necessarily mean i had the upper hand.

ASH: Next up was pignite, who had an advantage over the bug type scolipede and in a fiery battle, switching between his flame charge attack and his flame thrower attack, pignite managed to take scolipede down.

ASH: However, pignite had been hit with a toxic attack and it was badly poisoned, at least until Roxie generously offered it a pecha berry to cure him.

SERENA: That was real nice.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Roxie was down to her last pokemon.

ASH: Her last and strongest pokemon was garbodor.

ASH: The battle between garbodor and pignite was a wild back and forth exchange and Roxie's fans never stopped cheering her on, so Iris decided i needed some moral support and she and axew started cheering for me.

ASH: After garbodor eliminated pignite with a powerful hyper beam attack, i sent out palpitoad, but their bout didn't last long, as garbodor's combination of a gunk shot attack and a venoshock attack proved to be overwhelming.

ASH: I called on my final pokemon, pikachu, of course.

ASH: Pikachu's speed kept it out of garbodor's reach for some time, but the big pokemon eventually managed to grab pikachu and land several direct hits with double slap, which triggered pikachu's special ability, static.

ASH: Garbodor was paralyzed, giving pikachu an opening to attack.

ASH: However, before too long, garbodor shook off the paralysis and tried to turn the tide again.

ASH: To cheer me on, Iris broke out the face paint and recruited Cilan to her cheering squad.

ASH: Their chanting and drumming were loud and clear over Roxie's rowdy crowd.

SERENA: That's friendship spirit for ya.

ASH: Exactly!

ASH: With that morale boost, me and pikachu battled back with a series of crackling electric type attacks.

ASH: With one last electro ball blast, garbodor was down and out and i had won the toxic badge, putting me directly on the path to the Unova league.

SERENA: You really are an amazing person, Ash.

ASH: (blushing) Thank you.

ASH: Roxie is an amazing person too.

ASH: Even though i had a number advantage in our gym battle, she was by far the most lethal gym leader i ever fought and beaten in the Unova league.

ASH: Her awesomeness is rare.

SERENA: That it is.

ASH: After learning the Unova league conference would not be held for 3 more months, me, Iris, and Clian met up with Cynthia, the Sinnoh champion.

SERENA: That's so cool.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: She said she had come to Unova to participate in an exhibition match at the pokemon world tournament junior cup, held in Lacunosa Town and i learned that the prize of the tournament was a battle with Alder, Unova's reigning champion.

SERENA: Sounds good.

ASH: As the 4 of us headed out of Virbank City for Undella Town, we came across the legendary melody pokemon, meloetta, that had fallen ill.

ASH: We managed to get her healthy again.

SERENA: I'm glad to hear it.

ASH: Iris had a battle with Cynthia, but she lost.

SERENA: That's to bad.

ASH: Flying with Cynthia to Undella Town in eastern Unova, we marveled at the variety of pokemon we saw.

ASH: As soon as we landed, we were driven towards Cynthia's beautiful vacation home in a stretch limo driven by her butler, Jervis.

ASH: We were unaware that meloetta had been invisibly following us until it reappeared right in my lap.

ASH: However, she was a bit shy and she disappeared again after a few minutes.

ASH: When we arrived at Cynthia's mansion, a very playful girl from my past snuck up from behind me.

SERENA: (sounding a bit upset) What very playful girl from your past?

ASH: It was Dawn.

ASH: She had piplup with her too.

ASH: After a happy reunion with me, Dawn met Iris and Cilan, plus all the new pokemon traveling with us in the Unova region.

ASH: I finally convinced meloetta to come out of hiding to meet Dawn and when the mythical pokemon appeared, piplup and oshawott promptly started competing for its attention.

SERENA: How sweet.

ASH: When we discovered that Dawn was also planning to enter the pokemon world tournament junior cup, we all wanted to have a battle with her.

ASH: Cilan went up first, in an exciting connoisseur versus coordinator battle and gave a glowing evaluation of Dawn's bond with her piplup in the middle of the battle.

ASH: Then, meloetta caused another interruption when it wandered on to the battle field to dance with piplup, inspired by its beautiful contest moves.

ASH: Jervis called a time out when every one was a bit less distracted.

ASH: Dawn promised to battle Iris next and then it would be my turn.

ASH: The 4 of us looked forward to training together at Cynthia's villa in preparation for the junior cup.

ASH: While Cynthia was preparing for the junior cup, me, Dawn, Iris, and Cilan took a trip to an uninhabited island for some relaxation.

ASH: However, we soon discovered the island was home to several onixes that began to attack us.

ASH: We eventually got off of that freaky island.

SERENA: Glad you did.

ASH: Anyway, while in Undella Town, Cilan helped a boy named Chris track down his missing cubchoo.

ASH: However, we instead found a roaming beartic that might have once been Chris's cubchoo.

ASH: I can't remember.

ASH: When the power went out in Undella Town, we tried to help out when we discovered a rampaging dragonite was to blame.

ASH: When Iris discovered the dragonite, she believed it was truly not bad, but she was soon trapped in the room with the dragonite, oshawott, and piplup.

ASH: We later discovered that dragonite didn't cause the power outage and Iris ended up capturing dragonite.

SERENA: All's well that ends well.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: The Lacunosa Town tournament stadium was buzzing with excitement, as the pokemon world tournament junior cup got under way.

ASH: With commentary from Freddy the scoop and Champion Alder, the tournament began with an exhibition match between Cynthia, the Sinnoh league champion and Caitlin, a member of the Unova elite 4.

ASH: These 2 top trainers showed their stuff with an elegant and beautiful battle between Caitlin's gothitelle and Cynthia's garchomp, which ended in a draw when time ran out.

SERENA: I wish i could've seen that elegant and beautiful battle.

ASH: It was time for the first round.

ASH: My rival Trip was paired up against Burgundy, who only wanted to battle Cilan.

ASH: Trip's serperior managed to take down her darmanitan in a flash, despite the type disadvantage.

ASH: Burgundy was stomping angry, but Trip was quietly confident that he would win the whole tournament and go on to prove his strength by defeating Alder.

ASH: Me, Dawn, and Cilan defeated our first round opponents as well and then, in the last battle of the first round, it was Iris and her new dragonite versus Georgia and her beartic.

ASH: This was dragonite's first battle with Iris and it was clear that they were not connected.

ASH: Dragonite repeatedly ignored Iris' orders to dodge and stood its ground as beartic landed hit after hit.

ASH: When beartic's ice beam froze dragonite solid, Iris had had enough and screamed at her head strong pokemon to pay attention and get serious.

ASH: In response, dragonite broke free of the ice and launched a powerful thunder punch attack at beartic, knocking it out cold.

ASH: Georgia insisted that she lost to dragonite and not to Iris, but Iris was satisfied about defeating her.

SERENA: That dragonite has a massive amount of brute strength.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: It was time for the second round of the pokemon world tournament junior cup and me, Dawn, Iris, Trip, and Cilan were all on the hunt.

ASH: A very confident Trip was up first, again winning his bout quickly despite a type disadvantage and moving on to the semi-finals.

ASH: Elsewhere, Iris stepped outside to try to convince dragonite to listen to her commands when they battled, instead of doing whatever it wanted.

ASH: However, it appeared to be a tough sell for the head strong pokemon, although a few wise words from Cynthia seemed to be getting through.

ASH: While she's gone, Cilan defeated his opponent thanks to some remarkable team work with his stunfisk.

ASH: Then, with help from boldore, Ash moved into the semi finals as well.

ASH: The last battle of the round was Iris versus Dawn.

ASH: It was a clash of giants indeed, as the towering dragonite faced off against the gargantuan mamoswine.

ASH: At first it seemed like dragonite was actually paying attention to Iris, as it listened to her first command to dodge.

ASH: However, it quickly reverted to its usual tactic of taking every attack head on and Iris got more and more frustrated as Dawn and mamoswine displayed excellent coordination.

ASH: Once again, dragonite managed to win the match on its own and after a friendly pep talk from Dawn, Iris was even more determined to connect with her stubborn pokemon.

SERENA: Good!

ASH: The semi finals got under way and the first match was Trip versus Cilan.

ASH: Trip had his eyes on the ultimate prize-a battle against Unova Champion Alder.

ASH: Cilan was hoping Trip's arrogance would make him careless, but no such luck, as serperior managed to get through crustle's impressive defenses and knock Cilan out of the tournament.

SERENA: Trip sounds almost as powerful as Paul.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Next up, it was me and my krokorok versus Iris and her dragonite.

ASH: Dragonite had krokorok reeling after a powerful pair of direct hits, but krokorok was determined to hang on and then it evolved into a krookodile.

SERENA: It must've evolved for you.

ASH: Yeah!

ASH: This brought the match to a new level of intensity and when krookodile hit dragonite hard with a super effective dragon claw attack, dragonite got angry and i mean really angry.

ASH: It started ignoring Iris yet again, unleashing one undisciplined attack after another.

ASH: Iris helplessly pleaded with dragonite to pull itself together and calm down and i felt sorry for her, but it was a battle after all and me and krookodile weren't about to let up.

ASH: Me and krookodile won and moved on to the finals.

ASH: Iris was frustrated and unhappy after her defeat and the taunting from Georgia didn't help, but Cynthia stepped in once again, with her experience in training dragon types and counseled Iris to keep working on her relationship with the stubborn dragonite.

ASH: It was time for the final round.

ASH: I was up against Trip and confidence was evident on both sides.

ASH: My pignite had the type advantage over Trip's serperior, but serperior's unbelievable speed made it virtually impossible for pignite to land even a single hit.

ASH: Although pignite's determination was remarkable and i tried to even the odds by having pignite use a flame charge attack over and over to boost its own speed, it just wasn't enough.

ASH: A final frenzy plant attack from serperior ended the battle and Trip won the junior cup.

SERENA: I had a feeling he would.

ASH: This meant, of course, that Trip got the chance he had been waiting for.

ASH: He would have a battle with Unova Champion Alder.

ASH: The battle got under way and Trip relied on his super speedy serperior and Alder called out his bouffalant.

ASH: He and his serperior had a clever strategy against Alder's bouffalant, but Alder's experience and skills were to much and Trip was defeated.

ASH: Some sage advice from Alder resonated with him, though and as he said good bye to me and the others, he seemed much calmer and happier as a result.

SERENA: That's good to hear.

ASH: Me, Dawn, Iris, and Cilan were still marveling at the surprising change when we encountered a young and rather frantic trainer named Cameron, who hoped to be the first one in line for the junior cup.

ASH: I told him that he was way too late and after a moment of frustration, Cameron and his riolu dashed off in search of Alder.

ASH: We headed back to Cynthia's house and Dawn told us it was almost time for her to go.

ASH: She and piplup were headed to the Johto region to participate in the famed Wallace cup contest and she was planning to draw on her experiences in Unova for some exciting new contest moves.

SERENA: That's what i call growing and learning.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Before she left, i challenged Dawn to a battle.

ASH: It was me and pikachu against her and her quilava.

ASH: We seemed evenly matched, battling back and forth with some surprising strategies and finally, Cynthia declared the battle a draw.

ASH: She complimented the skills of both of us and the many things they've learned on our journeys.

ASH: Me and Dawn were excited to get such praise from a champion.

ASH: We said our good byes and just as Dawn's plane was taking off for Johto, the frantic Cameron showed up again, just barely missing the flight.

ASH: This turned out to be a good thing because he intended to compete in the Unova league, which was not, in fact, being held in the Johto region.

SERENA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

SERENA: Cameron sounds dumber than you.

ASH: I'll ignore that.

ASH: Anyway, he proudly showed off his badge case, with its seven shiny gym badges and had a moment of panic when i pointed out that he was missing one.

ASH: Cameron decided to challenge the nearest gym so he could get his eighth badge as quickly as possible and he was about to head off to Humilau City when i asked if we could tag along to watch the battle.

ASH: Me, Iris, and Cilan helped Cameron get to Humilau City where he challenged Marlon for his own eighth Unova league gym badge.

ASH: On the way, me and Cameron got separated from the group and neither of us had brought any food with us.

ASH: Meloetta came to the rescue.

ASH: It was time for Cameron's gym battle.

ASH: His ferrothorn quickly defeated Marlon's jellicent with a super effective thunder bolt attack, but something seemed strange and when Cameron tried to use a thunder bolt attack against Marlon's mantine, he discovered what happened.

ASH: Jellicent's ability, cursed body, disabled the move.

ASH: With out thunder bolts, ferrothorn lost in short order and Cameron decided he needed a pokemon better suited to the gym's aquatic battle field.

ASH: He sent out his samurott and the battle moved under water.

ASH: We couldn't see what was going on below the surface as the 2 pokemon traded attacks, but when they came up again, it was clear samurott had managed to gain the upper hand.

ASH: It knocked out mantine with powerful double razor shells and Cameron won the wave badge.

ASH: With 8 gym badges each, me and Cameron were both ready to enter the Unova league.

ASH: They parted ways for now, but promised to see each other there soon.

SERENA: That was a battle i wish i could've watched.

ASH: It was worth watching.

ASH: I continued to train at Cynthia's mansion until Ridley, a member of an ancient civilization dedicated to protecting meloetta, along with his golurk, heard meloetta's song and came to take meloetta back.

ASH: At first, Ridley assumed i was associated with thieves, but this turned out not to be the case.

ASH: Before Ridley could take meloetta home, team rocket assaulted the group, captured meloetta, and summoned up the ancient Abyssal Temple through her power and singing.

ASH: We tried to fight off team rocket, but with Giovanni himself there, they were too strong.

SERENA: Who's Giovanni?

ASH: The big man in question is the leader of team rocket.

SERENA: (shocked) The leader himself made an appearance?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (shocked) They must've been planning something huge if he was there.

ASH: They were.

ASH: Giovanni acquired the mysterious reveal glass and used it to summon the 3 legendary pokemon tornadus, thundurus, and landorus.

SERENA: Not them again.

ASH: Oh yeah.

ASH: Meloetta's protector, Ridley, explained that who ever controls meloetta also controls these 3 ancient pokemon.

ASH: Team rocket's plan was just the latest attempt by evil doers over the years to take over the Unova region using the power of the reveal glass.

ASH: We watched in horror as the 3 legendary pokemon changed into their therian form and prepared to wreak havoc upon the Unova region.

ASH: As me and pikachu escaped from our cage, an enormous pokemon battle took place.

ASH: My unfezant, Iris' dragonite, Cilan's pansage, Cynthia's garchomp, and Ridley's golurk joined with pikachu to stand against the fearsome tornadus, thundurus, and landorus.

ASH: Pikachu launched a massive electro ball attack to over power team rocket and freed meloetta!

ASH: Serena, this electro ball was as big as a house.

SERENA: (shocked and impressed) It was actually as big as a house?

ASH: Yep!

SERENA: (shocked and impressed) That's beyond comprehension.

ASH: It's beyond awesomeness.

ASH: Anyway, Giovanni still held the reveal glass and with out meloetta's calming influence, he was completely over come with evil ambitions.

ASH: Instead of conquering the Unova region, he wanted to destroy it.

ASH: Surprisingly, Jessie, James, and meowth intervened to sway their boss from the disastrous path.

ASH: As soon as he returned to his senses, team rocket reluctantly retreated.

ASH: Ridley used the reveal glass to return the 3 legendary pokemon to their incarnate forms and meloetta soothed their rage with its song.

ASH: With disaster averted, Ridley and meloetta bid us farewell and prepared to return home.

SERENA: I'm happy it had a happy ending.

ASH: Me too.

ASH: We eventually left Cynthia's mansion.

ASH: On the way to Vertress City, me, Iris, and Cilan found our way to Iris's home town, the Village of Dragons.

ASH: While there, Iris showed axew to her elder and helped her child hood friend, Shannon, when one of her zweilous suddenly evolved into a hydreigon and went berserk.

ASH: Iris eventually calmed it down.

ASH: We arrived in Opelucid City for Iris' scheduled rematch against the dragon master and gym leader, Drayden, who gave her and excadrill their first ever defeat years ago.

ASH: Upon arrival, Iris remembered her difficult time in going to school there and trying to adjust to urban life.

ASH: She put her excadrill and dragonite to the test against Drayden's haxorus and druddigon in order for him to evaluate her training and skills.

ASH: Iris was defeated, but the battle had served its purpose and Drayden was satisfied with her potential and the strength she showed.

ASH: He advised her to keep training and getting stronger and asked her to come back and visit when she's ready.

ASH: As he left, Martha revealed that it was actually Drayden who suggested to the village elder that Iris should go on a journey and that he had been planning for her to take over as the Opelucid gym leader when he retired.

ASH: Iris was stunned by this news and asked for some time to consider her decision while she continued her journey.

ASH: Near Vertress City, we met the pokemon rescue squad's Virgil-trainer of team eevee and his brother Davey, whom we decided to assist in helping a group of troubled cryoganal.

ASH: We managed to help out and the crisis ended.

SERENA: You're good at resolving crisis after crisis.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Anyways, we finally arrived in Vertress City, home of the Unova league and my excitement was at a fever pitch.

ASH: While we were in the midst of marveling at the massive Unova league stadium, a few familiar faces of several trainers began rolling into town with their own plans to compete and to my dismay, Bianca's entrance was as dramatic as ever.

SERENA: Let me guess.

SERENA: She bumped into you hard.

ASH: Exactly!

ASH: Me, Trip, Bianca, Stephen, and our new friend Virgil, from the pokemon rescue squad, were all raring to go, as was Cameron, who had been camping out for 3 days in a tent, with his riolu, to make sure he wouldn't be late.

ASH: However, no one told him he needed to register for the tournament, so i rushed my absent minded friend over to Nurse Joy, mere moments after registration had closed.

ASH: Fortunately for Cameron, Nurse Joy took pity on him and let him register anyway.

SERENA: That's a relief.

ASH: The next morning, it was time to get started.

ASH: Freddy the scoop dropped in by parachute to call the action and started out by announcing the rules before the main event began.

ASH: Trainers had to get through the qualifying rounds, where they could only use 1 pokemon each.

ASH: Stephan won his first match easily.

ASH: Virgil and Bianca won against their opponents and i was paired up against my very first Unova rival, Trip.

SERENA: In the first round?

ASH: Yep!

SERENA: Talk about bad luck.

SERENA: Going up against someone that strong right off the bat is very unfortunate.

ASH: I guess it was in some ways.

ASH: Trip called out his super speedy serperior.

ASH: This time, rather than relying on pignite's type advantage, i went with pikachu to kick off my Unova league experience.

ASH: However, even pikachu's quick attack wasn't fast enough to hit serperior, who dodged every move with serpentine skill.

ASH: However, i was determined not to let my rival knock me out of the competition and a combination of an iron tail and an electro ball attack, turned the tables, allowing me to move on to the main event.

SERENA: You always eventually defeat your rivals.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Anyways, Bianca went up against Cameron.

ASH: Cameron's samurott immediately went on the offensive against Bianca's escavalier and though Bianca maxed out escavalier's defensive power with the iron defense move, 2 successful double razor shells from samurott still got through and escavalier was out.

ASH: Bianca called out emboar, which seemed like a strange choice, as a fire type, it was at a disadvantage against the water type samurott, but Bianca's strategy was sound.

ASH: Emboar used attract and samurott was immediately smitten.

ASH: With a couple of powerful fighting type attacks, samurott was down for the count.

ASH: Cameron then called out his beloved riolu and he proved to be quite a power house, despite its small size.

ASH: Its speed, dexterity, and expert timing, combined with moves like copy cat and vacuum wave, were enough to finish emboar off.

ASH: Cameron had won.

SERENA: He won very easily.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: While every one discussed how to spend the evening-watching a fire works show, browsing the many vendors on site, or relaxing in the sauna, Axew wandered off and was quickly lost in the crowd.

ASH: While trying to find its way back to Iris, axew got swept up in the celebration of a small town fan club.

ASH: The crowd was in Vertress City to support Russet, the first trainer from their home town to make it into the top 16 of the Unova league.

ASH: We had realized axew was missing and Virgil suggested checking the surveillance cameras.

ASH: We rushed out into the city to look for axew, but the crowds were just too big.

ASH: We decided to split up to cover more ground and pikachu, oshawott, scraggy, and emolga teamed up to search.

ASH: While out on the hunt, oshawott spotted a big box of apples and happily dug in, not realizing that the food belonged to a garbodor and a group of stinky trubbish, who angrily set out to find the thief.

SERENA: That stinks in more ways than one.

ASH: Emolga finally spotted axew, but the angry poison type pokemon were closing in and they confronted our axew at the edge of a tall cliff.

ASH: Me and the others heard the commotion and came to investigate.

ASH: We were reunited and i tried to apologize to garbodor for oshawott's behavior, but it ignored me and attacked.

ASH: Virgil put his pokemon rescue squad skills into action, first using espeon's psychic to get every one out of the way, then bringing out a soothe bell to calm garbodor down.

ASH: Once the battle was averted, Cilan made amends by preparing a delicious dinner for garbodor and all the trubbishes, including his special recipe pokemon food and every one settled in to watch the fire works together.

ASH: The next round of the Unova league began the next morning and the first match was me versus Stephan.

ASH: I put my krookodile, palpitoad, and leavanny up against Stephan's sawk, liepard, and zebstrika.

ASH: I won that match.

SERENA: Naturally!

ASH: The quarter finals began the next morning and i was up against Cameron in a full 6 on 6 battle.

ASH: On top of that, i finally came face to face with Cameron's secret weapon.

ASH: It was an intimidating hydreigon.

ASH: I chosed boldore to start off with, but hydreigon's power was to much and soon Cameron had his first win of their 6 on 6 match.

ASH: My next choice was oshawott.

ASH: Oshawott quickly proved that its power was impressive despite its small stature.

ASH: It wasn't enough to over come hydreigon and a final dragon rush attack gave Cameron a 2 win lead.

ASH: I then chosed pignite and things finally started to go my way.

ASH: The tenacious pignite refused to give in even after getting knocked down multiple times and a punishing brick break attack knocked hydreigon out of the competition.

ASH: Cameron's next pokemon was a ferrothorn, which quickly proved to be a bad choice against a fire type pokemon like pignite and the match was quickly tied at 2 wins each.

ASH: Next up, Cameron picked samurott, whose skills and strength, not to mention its type advantage, finally over came pignite's tenacity.

ASH: Pignite was out and pikachu was up and every one knew an amazing battle was in store.

SERENA: It's always a party with pikachu.

ASH: Samurott managed to deflect pikachu's electric type attacks with some quick razor shell attack action, but a well placed iron tail attack got through and i got my third win to tie the match at 3 each.

ASH: Then Cameron sent out his swanna, hoping for an aerial advantage, but pikachu quickly put a stop to that, as its electric type attacks proved to be to lethal to over come.

ASH: I was in the lead.

ASH: Cameron then sent out riolu to shine and i called pikachu back to rest up for a bit and sent out unfezant, but it took more than flying to take riolu down.

ASH: It had a powerful circle throw attack and his clever copy cat attack quickly sealed unfezant's defeat and i revealed my sixth and final pokemon, snivy.

ASH: They seemed to be evenly matched as riolu and snivy battled back and forth.

ASH: After a powerful leaf storm attack, riolu seemed to be down for the count, but then the tables turned as riolu evolved into lucario.

SERENA: That was a stroke of amazingly good luck for Cameron.

ASH: That's true.

ASH: Now that Cameron's riolu had evolved into a lucario in the midst of our Unova league battle, the heat was really turning up.

ASH: After evolving, lucario's powerful moves were even stronger than riolu's were and Snivy was easily defeated.

ASH: I then called out pikachu again, who hadn't fully recovered from his earlier battle.

ASH: Pikachu's power and tenacity were amazing as always.

ASH: It was the result of the strong bond between trainer and pokemon and it battled lucario almost to a stand still.

ASH: However, lucario managed to fire one final aura sphere attack to seal the deal and defeat pikachu.

ASH: I was out of the Unova league and Cameron moved on to the semi finals.

SERENA: I'm sorry to hear that.

ASH: It's okay.

ASH: He then went up against Virgil and team eevee.

ASH: Flareon's type advantage finally over came the powerful lucario.

ASH: Virgil's eevee proved to be a fierce competitor as well, knocking out his final opponent's druddigon to win the Unova league.

ASH: After i bid a fond farewell to my friends and rivals, i left contemplating all the wonderful adventures yet to come and feeling more determined than ever to make my dream of becoming a pokemon master a reality.

SERENA: I'd expect nothing less from you.

ASH: Briefly after the Unova league ended, we traveled on a ship, headed for the White Ruins and Professor Juniper's father, Cedric.

ASH: Cedric is a very fun loving person by the way.

ASH: Anyway, we met an unusual man known as N.

SERENA: N is a letter and not a name.

ASH: I know, but for some strange reason, he called himself that.

ASH: N told us he considered all pokemon his friends and he claimed he could hear the inner voices of pokemon.

ASH: He was also quite pleased with the strong bond he sensed between me and pikachu.

ASH: I mentioned that we were on our way to investigate the legendary pokemon reshiram and when N seemed interested, i told him about the time i saw zekrom.

ASH: N launched into a passionate description of his goals, which is to learn the mysteries of why pokemon exist in this world, to meet reshiram and zekrom, and to make pokemon's lives better.

ASH: This sounded good to me, but it quickly became clear that he and me didn't see entirely eye to eye when it came to pokemon battles, saying he didn't like the idea of forcing friends to fight each other.

SERENA: That's some what understandable.

ASH: I guess.

ASH: Anyways, during a practice battle between me and Iris, axew and pikachu were lured off.

ASH: Soon, both pokemon were in team rocket's clutches, but with the assistance of N, they were soon freed, but not before an attack from James' amoonguss stunned poor pikachu.

ASH: I wasn't sure what to do, but N had a plan.

ASH: He brought every one to the bow of the ship and called to his friends and then 2 wild alomomola leaped out of the water and used refresh to heal pikachu.

ASH: The ship was docking at Castelia City, where N had to go, but he assured us that we'd meet again.

ASH: As he left, he probably considered what seeing zekrom might mean for me.

SERENA: It means you're amazing, handsome.

SERENA: (blushing) I mean Ash.

ASH: Thanks!

ASH: Briefly after that, we were still heading for the White Ruins via Floccesy Town when we were attacked by 3 angry amoonguss.

ASH: Me, Iris, and Cilan fought them off and then took them to the Pokemon Center, where we found the place is packed.

ASH: Nurse Joy explained that many of the mountain pokemon had been coming into town and attacking people for no apparent reason and a trainer mentioned that he had seen some strangers hanging out at an abandoned observatory near the peak of the mountain.

ASH: Me and the others set out to investigate and we headed up the mountain when a bearded fellow advised us not to go any farther because it was too dangerous.

ASH: He was quickly proven right when all the pokemon in the area, including axew and pikachu, suddenly turned on us and started attacking.

ASH: He produced a device that shielded the pokemon from the harmful EM waves and as they calmed down, he removed his disguise.

ASH: It was Detective Looker of the international police, last seen chasing down team galactic in the Sinnoh region and now was on the trail of team plasma.

SERENA: Talk about a pleasant surprise.

SERENA: Who were these people called team plasma?

ASH: I'm getting there.

ASH: He tracked them to the abandoned observatory and naturally, we decided to come along and help.

ASH: When we confronted team plasma inside the observatory, the evil nutty professor decided that pikachu would be the perfect subject for his experiments.

ASH: It was a tense moment as pikachu struggled against the control of the evil nutty professor's machine, but the bond between me and pikachu was stronger than any EM wave and pikachu broke free.

ASH: The evil nutty professor was marveling at this sight when he noticed a strange device plugged into his machine, stealing his data.

ASH: It was team rocket.

ASH: They grabbed some of the equipment, which freed all the mountain pokemon from the scientist's influence and fled in their balloon, but a missile from team plasma's air ship sent them blasting off again.

SERENA: It's ironic how team rocket ended up freeing the mountain pokemon.

ASH: Looker realized that the remaining equipment was set to self destruct and quickly got every one out of the building before the observatory blew up, destroying all evidence of team plasma's presence and the evil nutty professor's experiments.

ASH: He vowed to get to the bottom of team plasma's villainous plot and me and the others wished him well as he departed and we resumed our trip to the White Ruins.

ASH: Me and company once again ran into N, who had freed a braviary held captive by team plasma.

ASH: We helped him bring it to a Pokemon Center, but when braviary was tracked by a pair of team plasma grunts and they used a seviper and zangoose in battle.

ASH: N put his life on the line.

ASH: Successfully freeing braviary, N joined our group on our trip to the White Ruins.

ASH: Upon returning to Virbank City, me and company, including N, met Halsey who ran a rescue team consisting of his 2 frillishes, his dewott, and his watchog.

ASH: Making his personal feelings on the idea of pokemon putting themselves at risk for the sake of humans known, N's belief that watchdog, who seemed ill suited for the team's risky endeavors, was being used as a tool.

ASH: It caused an ideological clash between him and Halsey, but the 2 men put their differences aside to work together to put out a fire at Virbank City's Industrial Complex.

ASH: Me and my friends, including N, came across the Kanto Fair and seeing a charmander perform on stage reminded me of my old friend, charizard.

ASH: I told N, Iris, and Cilan about mine and charizard's history with Brock and Misty during the tale.

ASH: Professor Oak sent charizard over and after he met Iris' dragonite, me and Iris agreed to have a friendly match.

SERENA: Who won?

ASH: It kind of ended in a tie.

ASH: My offer to let charizard rejoin my team was met with approval from all parties involved.

ASH: Briefly after that, the evil nutty professor appeared and tested out his newly advanced machine on dragon type pokemon by first taking over a young trainer's haxorus and later, Iris' dragonite.

ASH: As me and charizard tried to stop them, N put himself in the cross fire, knowing the pokemon should be friends and not fight.

ASH: More battling ensued and when team plasma discovered N, it became obvious they had history.

ASH: Team plasma wanted N to come with them, but N refused, telling them to leave him alone and when Iris ended up in the direct path of a powerful pair of attacks, N pushed her out of the way and got hit instead and knocked unconscious.

ASH: A way ward attack from team plasma's liepard caused the device to stop working.

ASH: Haxorus and dragonite were released and the evil nutty professor signaled a retreat.

ASH: Team plasma made their escape.

ASH: As me, Iris, and Cilan tried unsuccessfully to wake N up, a mysterious fog rolled in and 2 creepy women appeared.

SERENA: (scared) GHOSTS!

ASH: (acting and feeling startled after Serena screamed) BAH!

SERENA: (scared) If fog appeared right before they appeared, than that means they must've been ghosts.

ASH: Not quite.

ASH: They directed their pokemon, gothitelle and gardevoir, to make N float, then they walked away with him, soon followed by us.

ASH: We watched as the women lowered N into a lake of water.

ASH: Me, Iris, and Cilan soon learned that N and the 2 women, Concordia and Anthea, had been living in a secret hide away, where they take care of pokemon that had been mistreated by people.

ASH: N described how, as a young boy, he lived in a mansion with Anthea, Concordia, and some man named Ghetsis, the leader of team plasma, who never allowed him to go outside.

SERENA: That's just awful.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: Ghetsis explained to N that because of his ability to hear the inner voices of pokemon, he was destined to become the leader of team plasma and save the world's pokemon from selfish people.

ASH: However, N said Ghetsis was lying.

ASH: He only wanted to use N in a ceremony to summon the legendary pokemon, reshiram.

ASH: However, when reshiram showed up, it was very angry at the deceit and unleashed its fury on team plasma.

ASH: In the after math, Anthea and Concordia rescued N and made their way to the hidden house where they lived.

ASH: N and his companions still agreed that people were not to be trusted to protect the well being of pokemon and they believed pokemon needed to be kept away from people.

ASH: However, we were determined to prove them wrong and Concordia and Anthea were soon amazed to see the previously mistreated pokemon warm up to the young trainers.

ASH: Soon, team plasma's goons managed to track down N at the secret house.

ASH: Me and company battled them to allow N and his companions to get the injured pokemon to safety and team plasma was held at bay once again.

ASH: Unfortunately, N, Anthea, and Concordia remained convinced that people and pokemon couldn't coexist and so they bid farewell to us and vanished into the fog.

SERENA: Spooky!

ASH: Yes!

ASH: I think a day later, outside Dragon Spiral Tower, me, Iris, and Cilan, met up with Professor Cedric Juniper's assistant, Nick, who offered us a ride to meet the professor at the White Ruins.

ASH: En route, he told us the excavation team may have made a fantastic discovery, but wouldn't say any more.

ASH: Inside the ruins, we were reunited with Cedric, who showed us a door covered in mysterious symbols.

ASH: He moved a few panels around and the door came open.

ASH: There, in front of our eyes, was the light stone.

ASH: It was an item straight out of the legend that was said to be reshiram in a different form.

ASH: The professor picked up the stone and it burst into flames in his hands, sending a bright blast of light straight up into the air and leaving him unharmed.

SERENA: That's just bizarre.

ASH: I agree.

ASH: Anyway, N made his way to the ruins, surprising all of us and asked to know what the professor planned to do with the stone.

ASH: Cedric explained that the light stone and reshiram were part of his life's work and said he planned to investigate the stone thoroughly.

ASH: N found this to be unacceptable and leaped into action, grabbing the case with the stone in it and running away.

ASH: I chased after him, but the ground broke.

ASH: N went back to help him, even dropping the case to grab my hand, but found himself falling as well and the 2 of us landed on soft sand deep under ground.

ASH: Under ground, N and i were having an intense conversation about the relationships between people and pokemon.

ASH: N still thought pokemon would be better off with out people, but i insisted that i just wanted to learn more about pokemon and to be really good friends with them, including reshiram.

SERENA: That's genuine curiosity.

ASH: Then we heard the sounds of battles going on above us and decided that we had to find a way out.

ASH: Team plasma continued to implement their evil plan to steal the light stone and get N, but Iris and Cilan were battling back hard, while me and N were trapped under ground.

ASH: N could sense the disturbances on the surface, as he heard the inner voices of his pokemon friends screaming in chaos.

ASH: I decided we had to get out of there and help all of them out too.

ASH: I recalled one of Professor Cedric Juniper's adventure rules.

ASH: The first rule was to never give up until the very end.

ASH: I brought out the rest of my pokemon and we all worked together to dig a tunnel to the surface.

ASH: Krookodile eventually burst through the ground, followed quickly by N, me, and charizard holding the light stone.

ASH: The evil nutty professor refocused his device on my pokemon and i scrambled to return them all to safety.

ASH: I think the evil nutty professor name was Colress.

ASH: Colress' machine took control and a growling pikachu turned on us and attacked.

SERENA: That's terrible.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: I gently attempted to make my best buddy recognize me, but it wasn't working and pikachu unleashed a full powered thunder bolt on me at close range, knocking me unconscious.

ASH: Desperately, N offered to give himself up, along with the light stone, if Colress turned off the device and set pikachu free.

ASH: Colress agreed and N was taken into team plasma's custody.

ASH: Pikachu came back to its senses.

ASH: Ghetsis soon arrived and revealed his ultimate goal.

ASH: His ultimate goal was awakening the legendary pokemon, reshiram, from the light stone and taking control of his mind.

ASH: Axew sneaked out of Iris' hair, where it was safely concealed and managed to free her and Cilan from the metal bands that held them.

ASH: Then, Concordia and Anthea appeared from their mysterious fog and asked N to come back into hiding with them, but N vowed to stay in the real world and fight for his ideals.

ASH: Colress' device had taken control of their gothitelle and gardevoir, along with the newly awakened reshiram and things were looking very bleak.

ASH: Now was the moment team rocket stepped in.

ASH: They had been watching the event from a safe distance, but when Looker spotted them and asked for their help in destroying the device and freeing all the controlled pokemon, they agreed.

SERENA: It's good to know that team rocket has some good in them.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: Meowth jumped in to distract the other members of team plasma while me and pikachu went after the device.

ASH: Colress tried desperately to take control of pikachu, but pikachu's will power and his bond with me, proved to be too strong and he aimed a thunder bolt at reshiram to free it.

ASH: The device was destroyed and team plasma was defeated, thanks to an unusual combination of team work between the good guys and team rocket.

ASH: Reshiram was freed, but it still was very angry.

ASH: N spoke to it in an attempt to calm it down and it soon became clear that he changed his tone when he told reshiram that people and pokemon can live in harmony and work together.

ASH: He promised reshiram that he'd keep fighting for an ideal world for people and pokemon alike and seemed pleased with reshiram's answer.

ASH: Iris wanted to know what the legendary pokemon told him, but i didn't want to know.

ASH: I wanted to meet reshiram again some day and hear the answer for myself.

SERENA: I'm very happy it had a happy ending.

ASH: Me too.

ASH: With team plasma finally defeated once and for all, i was planning to head on home to the Kanto region and Iris and Cilan both decided they wanted to come along.

ASH: Professor Juniper suggested that we travel to Kanto on a cruise ship that stops in the Decolore Islands.

ASH: That was an idea we all seemed to like.

ASH: We left our pokemon with who we thought was a friendly attendant and she invited axew and pikachu along for a snack.

ASH: She locked the pokemon inside the play room while the supposed captain took us to our rooms and locked us in too.

ASH: However, 1 poke ball rolled away while the attendant was distracted, so oshawott was free to explore the ship and he quickly discovered team rocket's plot.

SERENA: Should've guessed.

ASH: Oshawott attacked hit the control panel, knocking out power to the ship and unlocking all the doors.

ASH: Me, Iris, and Cilan quickly reclaimed our pokemon and headed to the deck to confront team rocket.

ASH: A battle began, even though Cilan warned battling on a ship probably wasn't a good idea and he was quickly proven right when Iris told excadrill to use dig and it dug right through the bottom of the ship, which began to sink.

ASH: Team rocket blasted off on a huge spout of water and we managed to escape, finding our way on to the right ship.

ASH: It was all aboard for Kanto by way of the Decolore Islands, as the adventure continued.

SERENA: Well said.

ASH: Our first stop was on honey island.

ASH: Eventually, me, Iris, and Cilan caught up with Professor Oak who had come to one of the Decolore Islands to investigate the rare plasma pokemon known as rotom and its form change capabilities.

ASH: However, the rotom native to the island was more interested in emolga, pikachu, and stunfisk.

ASH: Rotom was a real practical joker.

ASH: Briefly after that, what started out as a beautiful day on Capacia Island, soon took a turn for the worse.

SERENA: What happened?

ASH: We followed the path across the island and Iris got distracted by a meadow full of beautiful flowers.

ASH: As me and Cilan waited for Iris to decorate her hair with the blossoms, we spotted a dunsparce, a pokemon known for being very cautious and hard to find.

ASH: I decided i wanted to catch it.

ASH: Dunsparce responded with a screech attack that knocked Iris' flowers to the ground and i accidentally crushed them.

ASH: Trying to get away from the terrible noise, axew bumped into pikachu, giving the shy dunsparce a chance to escape.

ASH: I blamed axew and Iris for the missed opportunity and things turned a little ugly between us.

ASH: When i found a fruit tree and tried to make peace with Iris by sharing some fruit, i accidentally gave her a very bitter piece of fruit.

ASH: She thought i did it on purpose just to get back at her and a big argument broke out between us.

ASH: After some heated words, she declared that she wasn't going to travel with me anymore and stormed off.

After hearing that last sentence, Serena can't help, but feel a little relieved.

ASH: However, since there was only a single path across the island, we were still traveling closely.

ASH: That night, me and Cilan made camp and Iris decided to sleep in a tree some where farther away.

ASH: I called my pokemon out for dinner and scraggy got worried when he couldn't find his good friend axew.

ASH: I explained that Iris had decided to travel alone, which made pikachu and scraggy very sad.

ASH: Early the next morning, the 2 of them set off to find axew and Iris and bring them back, but team rocket had set up an ambush along the path and they leapt out of hiding and grabbed both of them.

ASH: The commotion quickly drew me and Cilan, soon followed by axew and Iris.

ASH: Together, we sent team rocket blasting off again.

ASH: At Cilan's advice, both of us apologized and made up.

After hearing that last sentence, Serena can't help, but feel a little worried.

ASH: I offered her a new flower for her hair and she gave me a much sweeter piece of fruit than the one i found for her.

ASH: She looked really pretty and that piece of fruit was as sweet as her.

SERENA: (sounding a little jealous) Is that so?

ASH: Yep!

SERENA: (sounding very jealous) You never offered me a flower.

ASH: I know.

SERENA: (sounding very jealous) I would look pretty too if i had a flower in my hair.

ASH: I'm sure you would.

SERENA: (sounding very jealous) Let me guess.

SERENA: (sounding very jealous) After that, you probably rubbed her feet while asking her how her day was.

ASH: (starting to form a big sweat drop) Not quite.

SERENA: (sounding very jealous) Then what?

ASH: We continued on our journey.

ASH: Eventually, we had arrived on Harvest Island, famous for its delicious berries.

ASH: Me, Iris, and Cilan set off for the festival that was there and along the way, we came across a pokemon we never saw before.

ASH: It was one that my pokedex couldn't identify.

ASH: I wanted to catch it, but when i challenged it to a battle, the electrical discharge from its frills knocked me flat and its trainer quickly ran up to apologize.

ASH: She introduced herself as Alexa, a pokemon journalist from the far away Kalos region.

SERENA: I love where this is going.

SERENA: It sounds very familiar.

ASH: She had her pokemon, helioptile and gogoat.

ASH: She traveled the world for her job, writing about and photo graphing pokemon in their natural habitat.

ASH: Helioptile helps her by recharging her equipment and gogoat carries that equipment in its saddle bags.

ASH: Alexa had come to the island to cover the pokemon sumo competition at the festival, so we all decided to walk together.

ASH: On the way, she filled us in on the legend surrounding the competition.

ASH: Long ago, the island was in danger of going barren because people and pokemon had stripped it of nearly all its berries.

ASH: The island's 2 strongest pokemon fought each other to a stand still over the last remaining berry and things looked grim, but a small boy picked the berry and split it in 2 pieces, offering half to each pokemon and he told them to share.

ASH: The island recovered and today, the pokemon sumo competition honored that fierce battle.

ASH: Me, Iris, and Cilan all decided to enter the competition and while we were waiting for it to begin, i had a run in with a rude guy named Rodney, who shoved me aside at the pie stand.

ASH: It turned out Rodney had entered the competition too with his enormous golurk, which made short work of all of its opponents, but me and pignite were determined and Rodney gradually began to show respect for our persistence.

ASH: Finally, with some clever maneuvering, pignite managed to get golurk off balance and threw it to the ground.

ASH: I had won.

ASH: Rodney was disappointed, but i offered to split some berries with him.

SERENA: It's good to know you followed in the foot steps of that small boy.

ASH: Yeah!

ASH: There were enough berries to feed the entire festival and every one happily joined in.

ASH: Afterwards, me and company were ready to set out for the ship again, when we learned that Alexa was heading to Kanto to work on her next article.

ASH: Therefore, she joined us on our travels.

SERENA: That's good to hear.

ASH: Me, Iris, Cilan, and Alexa continued our ship board tour of the Decolore Islands.

ASH: As we got near Cave Island, Porter, the captain of the ship, explained that the name came from the island's enormous cave, where many kinds of pokemon live.

ASH: We were all set to explore the cave when Alexa realized she had to go back for her recording equipment and we weren't sure where to go.

ASH: Fortunately, i spotted a familiar face.

ASH: It was Clair, the gym leader of the dragon type Black Thorn gym in the Johto region.

ASH: Iris was excited to meet a dragon master and the 2 of them bonded quickly.

ASH: Clair said she was going to the cave in search of a rare druddigon with different coloring and we were excited to join her in her quest, but first, she had to find her dragonite, who wandered off some where.

ASH: Iris' dragonite and my charizard went looking for Clair's dragonite, but when the 2 dragonites met, sparks flied and not in a good way.

ASH: The battle was on.

ASH: When Cilan caught up, he had a different interpretation, since Iris' dragonite was a boy and Clair's was a girl, Cilan was convinced that the battle was the first step in a star crossed love story.

ASH: Iris and Clair weren't so sure about that.

SERENA: (blushing) I love romance.

ASH: When we finally got the pokemon calmed down and arrived at the cave, we saw many kinds of pokemon running away.

ASH: It seemed the team rocket trio over heard Clair talking about the rare druddigon and decided to go after it.

ASH: They blocked off one of the 2 exits from the cave and set up a device that emitted painful sound waves that only pokemon could hear.

ASH: They intended to drive the druddigon to the other exit, where they were waiting to nab it.

ASH: That didn't go so well.

ASH: When druddigon emerged from the cave, it was ticked off and team rocket's attacks enraged it even more.

ASH: It blasted them off with a powerful dragon rage attack and then turned on us.

ASH: Clair quickly realized that battling wasn't the answer, so she started trying to calm it down, using the patience and skills she learned as a dragon master.

ASH: As Iris watched Clair calmly work with the rare druddigon, she told me and Cilan about a similar situation she faced as a little girl.

ASH: She met an angry druddigon in a cave and though she was afraid of it at first, she quickly realized it was injured and decided she had to help.

ASH: Iris treated druddigon and won its trust and that was the first time she realized she had a strong connection with dragon type pokemon.

ASH: Sure enough, Clair's soothing words and gentle manner got through to the raging druddigon.

ASH: Clair decided that she didn't need to catch druddigon after all and advised it to go back home since she disabled team rocket's device, but it refused to leave.

ASH: Therefore, the gym leader happily added it to her team.

ASH: The 4 of us returned to the ship, where we met up with Alexa, who was disappointed that she missed all the excitement.

ASH: Clair did give her a brief chance to film the rare druddigon, but then it was time to go.

ASH: Me, Iris, Cilan, and Alexa set off on our voyage once more.

SERENA: Druddigon sounded camera shy.

ASH: It probably was.

ASH: Eventually, Chili and Cress met up with Cilan on Paladin Island because they had both been beaten by a challenger at the Striaton gym named Morana, who exclusively used ice type pokemon such as glalie and mamoswine.

ASH: It was up to Cilan and pansage to face off against Morana and her abomasnow for the honor of the Striaton City gym.

SERENA: Who won?

ASH: Cilan!

ASH: We eventually wrapped up our ship board tour of the Decolore Islands.

ASH: We spotted several pokemon native to the Kanto region.

ASH: Porter said that was a sure sign that our final stop, Vermilion City, was close by.

ASH: We all had plans for Kanto.

ASH: I couldn't wait to get home, Iris and Cilan really wanted to see some pokemon that were new to them, and Alexa had plans to interview Professor Oak.

ASH: Unfortunately, the ship started moving suspiciously.

ASH: The passengers panicked and in the confusion, team rocket managed to put pikachu in a net, along with axew and an impressive haul of poke balls from all of us and the other passengers.

ASH: Trapped in the cargo hold, me, Iris, and Cilan made several attempts to escape before we were successful and then came at team rocket with a vengeance.

ASH: It wasn't long before the trio was over powered and all the pokemon were safely returned, as the ship glided down to a safe and gentle splash down.

SERENA: Good to hear.

ASH: Alexa had been working in her cabin with her ear phones on the whole time, so she had no idea of what had happened, but when she found out, she wanted to write an article about it.

SERENA: It's amazing she didn't hear or feel anything happen.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: The Decolore Queen as the ship was called, finally docked in Vermilion City and Iris and Cilan couldn't contain their excitement.

ASH: They wanted to set out on a new journey right away.

ASH: Iris wanted to go to Black Thorn City to train with gym leader Clair and Cilan planned to attend a fishing competition in the Hoenn region.

ASH: Me and Alexa went to the train station to see them off and as we said good bye, it was a bitter sweet moment as i thought back on all the adventures we had together.

SERENA: Saying good bye can be hard.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: After seeing Iris and Cilan off at the train station, me, Alexa, and pikachu headed for my home in Pallet Town.

ASH: Of course, i couldn't wait to see all of my pokemon over at Professor Oak's lab, but a little sensible advice from Alexa convinced me that my first stop should be to see my mother at home.

ASH: That visit didn't last long though.

ASH: After i brought my mom up to date on the recent adventures i had, she knew i couldn't wait to see my pokemon and gave me the go ahead to hurry over to Professor Oak's lab, where Alexa was interviewing him.

ASH: After thanking my Unova pokemon, along with pikachu and charizard, for all the great work they did leading up to and during the Unova league, i begged Alexa to introduce Professor Oak to her pokemon, gogoat, helioptile, and finally the powerful noivern.

ASH: Up close and personal had always been Professor Oak's favorite way to do research and with a mighty boom burst attack from noivern, he got his way.

ASH: I was full of questions about the Kalos region and Alexa could hardly keep up with them, but every one could tell the excitement about Kalos was building up inside me and that night, i announced that i was going to Kalos with Alexa and pikachu the very next morning.

SERENA: I totally saw that coming.

ASH: This didn't surprise my mother in the slightest either.

ASH: I was too excited about my next journey to sleep.

ASH: I thanked my mother for every thing and bid a fond farewell to her and Professor Oak.

ASH: Also, with promises to do my very best, me, Alexa, and pikachu were off to the Kalos region and untold new adventures awaited us.

SERENA: Well said again.

SERENA: You, Iris, and Cilan sure did have some exciting and dangerous adventures in the Unova region.

ASH: Yep!

ASH: It's like i said.

ASH: Danger and excitement are to be expected when you choose the pokemon path.

SERENA: I'm sure you miss both of them a lot.

ASH: Yes!

ASH: I have a strong bond with both of them.

ASH: Cilan reminded me a little of Brock and Iris was my special friend and pokemon battle mate.

After hearing that last sentence, Serena gets a little nervous.

SERENA: (talking nervously) Um, Ash.

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: (talking nervously) Do you love Iris?

ASH: Let me guess.

ASH: You wanna know if i'm in love with Iris.

SERENA: (panicking) WHAT!

ASH: As i thought.

SERENA: (panicking) How did you know that?

SERENA: (panicking and going slightly crazy) START TALKING!

ASH: (getting scared) CALM DOWN!

ASH: Maybe it's because you asked me that same type of question about my relationships with Misty, May, and Dawn.

SERENA: Oh!

SERENA: I'm guessing you love Iris only as a friend.

ASH: Yep!

SERENA: I'm glad to hear it.

SERENA: (talking nervously) I mean uh, i'm happy that you and Iris have such a close bonded relationship.

SERENA: (talking nervously) That's what i meant.

Serena stops talking nervously.

ASH: Are you okay Serena?

SERENA: (talking fast) Of course i am.

SERENA: (talking fast) Why wouldn't i be?

ASH: Alright!

ASH: No more lying.

ASH: I wanna know why you keep acting and talking so weirdly when ever i go into details about my past female traveling companions.

SERENA: Are you sure?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: Are you really sure?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: Are you really absolutely sure?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: Are you very really absolutely sure?

ASH: (starting to get irritated) Yes!

SERENA: Are you very really absolutely 100% sure?

ASH: YES!

SERENA: I'll tell you then.

SERENA: Get ready Ash Ketchum.

SERENA: I'm about to blow your mind.

ASH: (feeling a little scared) Okay!


	5. Serena's soul confession

Serena starts talking and tells Ash the reason why she acts and talks weirdly when ever he goes into details about his relationships with his past female friends and traveling companions. She tells him in a crazy kind of way and he's creeped out about what she says and how she says it to him. He then tells her what he wants.

SERENA: Alright!

SERENA: It's time i made my soul confession.

ASH: I'm listening.

SERENA: (blushing) The reason i act and talk weirdly when ever you go into romantic details about your relationships with your past female friends and traveling companions is because i'm jealous.

ASH: Jealous of what?

SERENA: (blushing) Of the fact that i care about you in a very deep way, but i don't have as much history with you as those other 4 girls do.

ASH: Why exactly would you be jealous about that?

SERENA: (blushing) I'm jealous because it sounds like they have a special type of bond with you that i don't have and that they have a special feeling for you that i have.

ASH: What feeling exactly?

SERENA: (getting angry and impatient) DO I HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU?

ASH: Just say it.

With a loud voice, Serena yelled at the top of her lungs how she feels about Ash.

SERENA: (yelling at the top of her lungs) I LOVE YOU.

ASH: (slightly shocked) You love me?

SERENA: (not yelling as loudly as before) YOU HEARD ME PAL.

SERENA: (not yelling as loudly as before) I LOVE YOU.

SERENA: (not yelling as loudly as before) LOVE YOU.

SERENA: (not yelling as loudly as before) WHO ELSE DO YOU THINK DREAMS ABOUT YOU AT NIGHT?

SERENA: (not yelling as loudly as before) WHO ELSE DO YOU THINK WROTE POEMS ABOUT YOU IN HER ROOM BEFORE SHE WENT ON A TRAVELING JOURNEY?

SERENA: (not yelling as loudly as before) I LOVE YOU ASH.

SERENA: (not yelling as loudly as before) I'VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU EVER SINCE I LAID EYES ON YOUR STUPID MESSY HAIR AND FROM THAT MOMENT AND EVERY MOMENT SINCE I'VE MET YOU, I'VE DREAMT OF THE MOMENT WHEN I COULD FINALLY TELL YOU MY SECRET FEELINGS FOR YOU SO I COULD GRAB YOU AND KISS YOU.

SERENA: (not yelling as loudly as before) OH COME HERE YOU STUPID HANDSOME BOY!

Serena grabs him, wraps her hands around his neck, and locks lips with him for 8 seconds until he slightly pushes her away.

ASH: (blushing) I'm confused.

ASH: (blushing) Did you just say you loved me?

SERENA: (not yelling as loudly as before) ARE YOU DEAF?

SERENA: Oh Ash, just hold me.

Serena tries to kiss him again, but he dodges it like a pokemon dodging an attract attack.

ASH: (blushing and talking nervously) I need to think.

SERENA: Yes!

SERENA: I suppose you'll have to do the thinking for both of us now.

Serena tries to kiss him once again, but he dodges it again like a pokemon dodging an attract attack.

ASH: (blushing and talking nervously) Wow!

ASH: (blushing and talking nervously) This is all happening to fast.

ASH: (blushing and talking nervously) I feel dizzy.

ASH: (blushing and talking nervously) I need to lie down.

SERENA: I'll lie down with you my love.

ASH: (blushing and talking nervously) NO!

ASH: (blushing) I just need to understand a few things.

SERENA: I'm listening.

ASH: (blushing) How and why did you fall in love with me?

SERENA: That's easy.

SERENA: I fell in love with you because you came to my rescue and escorted me out of the woods years ago.

SERENA: That was during Professor Oak's pokemon summer camp.

SERENA: I also fell in love with you because you're so nice.

SERENA: Lastly, i fell in love with you because i could tell there was something special about your soul.

SERENA: I could sense it deep with in my soul and there's nothing better than that romantically.

Hearing those last 2 sentences really made Ash curious.

ASH: That's quite a confession and realization.

ASH: So tell me.

ASH: This romance stuff.

SERENA: What about it?

ASH: How does it feel exactly?

ASH: If i were to talk lovingly about you, would i feel this thing called romance?

ASH: If i were to kiss you, would i feel it than?

SERENA: (blushing) Oh yeah.

ASH: Am i worth loving to you?

SERENA: (blushing) Yes!

SERENA: (blushing) Oh yeah.

ASH: I see.

ASH: I was wrong.

ASH: Maybe the other females from my past did think of me more than just a friend.

SERENA: (blushing) Looking back, i wouldn't be surprised.

SERENA: (blushing) You've changed and grown up a lot.

SERENA: (blushing) But you're still the same goofy boy i met in the woods that day.

ASH: Tell me something, Serena.

SERENA: What?

ASH: That time on TV.

ASH: How did you recognize me and how did you find me?

SERENA: Who knows.

SERENA: To be honest, i can't remember.

ASH: What?

ASH: What do you mean you can't remember?

Just then, they see a shooting star.

SERENA: It's nice.

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: I'm not gonna lie.

SERENA: I also have an ulterior motive for this soul confession of mine.

ASH: What's that?

SERENA: Miette gave me a friendly yet frightening warning when we were shaking hands away from you, Bonnie, Clemont, and pikachu.

ASH: You mean that blue haired girl with the red demonic eyes?

SERENA: The same.

SERENA: Her friendly yet frightening warning was clear.

SERENA: If i didn't tell you how i felt about you, then she would.

ASH: Oh boy.

SERENA: I finally grew a spine.

ASH: You also kinda grew slightly crazier.

SERENA: I have not.

SERENA: I just let it all out.

SERENA: That's all.

ASH: You did it in a very loud way too.

SERENA: I hope i didn't wake up the others.

ASH: I hope so too.

ASH: I think i suffered permanent hearing loss.

SERENA: Sorry!

ASH: Just please stop ranting like a mental patient.

SERENA: Can do.

SERENA: However!

ASH: Huh!

SERENA: This conversation isn't over.

ASH: What do you mean?

SERENA: I want the truth Ash.

SERENA: Do you love me?

ASH: Yes!

SERENA: Do you love me more than just a friend?

ASH: Nah!

ASH: However, i could learn to love you romantically.

SERENA: (half satisfied) Alright!

ASH: (satisfied) Alright!

SERENA: (becoming nervous) Last question.

ASH: What is it Serena?

SERENA: (nervous) Will you be my boyfriend?

ASH: I guess.

Serena develops a big smile on her face.

SERENA: YAY!

SERENA: Ash Ketchum, you've made me a very happy girl.

SERENA: I love you.

ASH: I love you too.

SERENA: We should probably keep the fact that we're boyfriend and girlfriend a secret for a little while.

SERENA: Just until we can think of the right time and place to announce it to Bonnie, Clemont, and pikachu.

ASH: Agreed!

SERENA: (smiling) Now that i'm your girlfriend, you can do things for me like protecting me, decorating my hair with flowers, complementing me on my beauty, and rubbing my feet while asking me how my day was.

Ash started to feel uncomfortable after hearing that last sentence.

ASH: (feeling uncomfortable) So in other words, you want me to be your slave.

Serena's smile quickly turns from being a happy smile to being an evil happy smile.

SERENA: (smiling evilly) Who me?

SERENA: (smiling evilly) Sweet Serena.

SERENA: (smiling evilly) I would never want something like that.

SERENA: (smiling evilly) That would be beautifully evil of me.

SERENA: (smiling evilly) I just don't want any girls to have you for themselves.

SERENA: (smiling evilly) I want you to be all mine.

ASH: (feeling scared) Those kinds of desires aren't allowed.

ASH: (feeling scared) Even if you are my girlfriend.

SERENA: I'm such a greedy girl sometimes.

ASH: You're also a loud scary crazy girl too.

SERENA: I resent that.

ASH: Whatever!

SERENA: Alright!

ASH: No more talking.

SERENA: Lets just stare at the stars some more and go back to camp in a few minutes.

ASH: Agreed!

Ash and Serena go back to looking at the stars after their wild, funny, and romantic conversation ends. As they look up, they think about their hopes and dreams.

**WOW! Serena is a very kind, polite, loud, scary, crazy, and beautiful girl. She's also a very clingy and demanding girl too. Ash has a lot to deal with now. It seems he's always attracting the crazy girls. It's probably his own personal curse. He has a very interesting life. The future for him and Serena seems good for her, but slightly frightening for him. Please type up your reviews for what you thought about this final chapter! Peace out.**


End file.
